Recap

U16 Boys looking to end season with three wins in a row

After racking up a double weekend win at Edinburgh and in an overtime thriller with Leicester on home soil, the Eagles U16 boys now have an opportunity to finish the campaign on a high with three straight wins.
With only City of Leeds left to play, they will want to continue the good work of a fruitful 24 hour period, when they saw off basement dwellers Edinburgh with ease 81-42, then followed it up with a dramatic 91-82 overtime success at the Vertu Motors Arena the following day against Riders.
Even if the result against the winless Edinburgh was somewhat predictable, the boys did a great job on the road along with stand-in coach Selin Straughan and that meant they were in a good place for the game with Leicester who they could and maybe should have beaten in the reverse fixture.
And, the Eagles did indeed extract some sweet revenge for that loss with a win that was a roller-coaster for the players and coaching team. Jumping out into a 17-point lead early, the Eagles were flying, but by half-time, the Riders had erased the deficit.

The second half saw a monumental battle and the toughness of the Eagles down the stretch paid dividends as they forced the extra period then pulled way to the win. Jakub Bobkowski was exceptional with 24 points, while George Merrifield and Fiontan Muldoon both also impressed after sharing 38 points between them.
“This was an important win for us in our quest to finish on a high note and we now have that opportunity to end with three victories,” reflected head coach, Chloe Gaynor who was back in place for the second game of the weekend.
“However, as always, we still have things to think about. We had a great lead and momentum early but that faded quickly when we made some rotations which is a concern, but to their credit we came back strong and there were some nice individual displays from a number of players.
“It was the first game I have coached in terms of winning in overtime and that was a learning experience for myself, while the boys showed a lot of guts and character to battle through and come out with the win.
“Now we focus on the last game against Leeds and hope that we can raise our game even higher for this last outing of the season.”