Recap

Bradford Dragons 24 V 124 Newcastle Eagles

Young Eagles II soar to ground Bradford Dragons

Coach Willis and her u16s Boys Conference team played host on Sunday to Bradford Dragons II in a mismatch of a contest which saw the young Eagles team run out easy winners. As the teams lined up prior to tip the physical difference between the sides was abundantly clear as Newcastle towered above the visiting Bradford Dragons throughout the frontcourt.

The game started with Eagles II running out to a 27 to 7 lead by the end of the first quarter. Despite this coach Willis, her assistants and the entire squad clearly weren’t happy with the way they were playing defensively as the squad failed to put in to practice their fundamental vision defensively. This led to a lot of rotation early on and a lack of offensive consistency from the young squad against a clearly out of their depth Dragons II team.

Following the quarter break Willis’ charges came out and continued a slightly flat start to the game but continued to pour on the scoring, pushing out the lead to 36-8 before Boston checked in off the bench with his high-energy style. Boston’s ability to run the floor and make simple finishes around the rim helped push the lead out to a 61-10 lead at the half. Although the Eagles II still looked unimpressed with their play as they went into the locker room at the half.

The third frame saw the young Eagles come out at pace with much improved defence to hold the visiting Dragons to just two points in the period, both of which came from the line. In addition, Eagles big men Snee and Railton sharing the floor together came together to help the Eagles really push their lead out even further in quarter with Snee contributing 8 of his game high 25 in this section.

The final quarter was again dominated by the Eagles as they moved the ball quickly, especially guards Merrifield and Smith. However, the Eagles continued to struggle with finishing around the rim on initial attempts leading to Snee adding 11 points meaning he scored 19 of his 25 in the second half. Merrifield continued his consistent scoring throughout the contest as he added 17 points from the lead guard spot to pace the Eagles backcourt scoring.

Following the game coach Willis commented: “Games like this can be tough in a way, I’m sure everyone could tell that we were the much better team in all facets of the game from very early on. This makes it difficult to maintain focus on continuously pushing on and progressing as a team, however we’ve discussed that we need to continue to focus throughout the full 40 minutes and focus on what we can control. We’re looking forward to some more competitive games during the season and pushing towards promotion, whilst focusing on continuing to progress individually and as a unit. This might mean adjusting how we aim our focus at games like this on our schedule in the future.”

Quarter Scores:

Q1 – Eagles 27 Dragons 7

Q2 – Eagles 34 Dragons 3

Q3 – Eagles 33 Dragons 2

Q4 – Eagles 30 Dragons 3 

Eagles Top Scorers: Snee – 25 Merrifield – 17  Boston – 13

Dragons Top Scorers: Mayet – 5 Lopes – 3 Kostka – 3