Recap
The young Eagles were looking to put one over on the Division 3 Explorers with the winners heading to Swindon another D3 team….
The Explorers playing in white from Division 3 travelled very light as they arrived in the North East with only 5 players including the very experienced Vance Silcott… The Eagles minus both Domantas Karpinskas and Blake Keeble with injury and Ben Spoors away in London brought in two of their U18s to fill the bench… The first quarter was very tight as the visitors sitting in a 3-2 zone took an early 4-8 lead before the Eagles started to find their range from the perimeter and by the midpoint were 13-10 up… The Explorers though edged the final 5 minutes with some sloppy finishing hurting the home team and the period closed at 17-20….
The second quarter saw the home team turn up the intensity on defence and they opened the flood gates on offence with 8 perimeter makes with top scorer Alex Horta hitting four and finally finding his shooting boots… The Explorers were starting to feel their short bench as the home team dominated the 10 minutes making it 43-34 at the half…. (36-14)
The second half continued for the boys in black on the offensive end as they again hit 30 points with some good shooting and transition offence but their defensive intensity slipped as the visitors hit 24 with Silcott and Vine contributing most….The Eagles let loose their U18s and Jeremy Leivin had some big rebounds and with Sauvuer Kande getting 3 scores and playing some good defence they proved very much at home in the senior league… The score at the end of the 3rd was 83-58… (30-24)
The fourth period saw the Eagles put on another full on performance as the visiting Explorers became tired and even looked disillusioned… The home team again allowing Kande and Leivin to play with big Jeremy chipping in with a couple of scores and again some good rebounding… The Eagles went on a 20-0 run in the last 5 minutes to close the game out at 107-66… (24-8)
Eagles head coach Heath said “You can only beat what’s in front of you and we certainly showed that today… At first we struggled to find a way to break their zone and to contain Vance but we soon got into stride and there was no looking back… We had a short bench ourselves with key players missing but the guys all showed up today and it was pleasing to get Alex shooting well and big games from Chris Linsley, Ishmael Ingram and Tom Usher… Along with good contributions from our U18s who stepped up… It was a great team effort and our starters accounted for 82 points which is fabulous… We now get to travel to Swindon for a challenge against another D3 team in round 3….”
Top Scorers: Alex Horta 20, Tom Usher 18, Ishmael Ingram and Chris Linsley 16….
The Eagles don’t play now till November 4th when they travel to Barrow Thorns back in league action….
