Fans came together on Thursday 2nd April to witness ‘The Big One’ against Manchester Basketball, experiencing an Eagles win together.
The battle started with the whistle for tip off at half seven, all fans cheering on the team, supporting the strong starting five of Alyssa Marin (#1), Andrea Daley (#22), Jada Dapaa (#21), Shanique Lucas (#7) and Zoe Willis (#4).
The whole squad influencing young aspiring basketball players, with fans Isabel (age 8) Megan (age 10) Joshua (age 5) saying: “Kids who like sport might get inspired to play basketball”.
Playing on the show-court for the game and with entertainment and catering provided by Gateshead College, impressed and excited fans, with fan Amy Milbern expressing that “It’s nicer having the court, I prefer it this way as it feels more exciting because there’s dances on!”
The arena was nearly at full capacity, which demonstrated fans’ commitment to the team and how big this game is for Basketball fans in the North East.
The first two points went to Manchester, but Eagles came back straight away with Andrea Daley coming straight back scoring 10 seconds later.
Fans were cheering “Let’s go Eagles, lets go” to encourage and support the players. The atmosphere in the crowd started to build in excitement as the battle continued.
The team stayed strong no matter what, especially when Alyssa Marin got injured with seven minutes to go in the second quarter, and came back together with even more vigour than before winning 41 to 26 before half time.
During the breaks in play there was Easter filled fun with the ‘Easter Chicken Run’, ‘Spin The Wheel’ and ‘Chuck A Duck’ all managed by Gateshead College students to keep the crowd entertained and energy levels up for the next action on court.
Gateshead College dancers also took part in the takeover, impressing all of the crowd with their routines and joining in as the crowd shows off their moves on the ‘Dance Cam’, which had all the young fans on their feet wanting to be caught on camera.
Fans also expressed their excitement of the game so far, Destiny said: “It’s nice to come here and support the women and it’s nice to just see more people supporting women’s sports.”
Eagles supporters Ben and Abby added: “It’s great to see they’ve put them on the show-court and there’s so many people here, to see this many people come out it’s fantastic. It’s amazing that Gateshead College have done stuff as well to add to the experience.”
The third quarter kicked off at twenty to nine the players still going strong with the same energy they started with. However, Manchester made a comeback during the third quarter winning 51 to 48.
And the commentator exclaimed that “it’s a two-point game” with Manchester still winning 59 to 57 with 2 minutes of game time left.
But the Eagles didn’t let fans down, winning 64 to 61. As Shanique Lucas secured the win, the cheering of the crowd was the only thing you could hear in the Vertu Arena.
After the game the Gateshead College media team caught up with the players to congratulate them and it was clear to see how excited they were with their win. Lots of hugging, fist pumps and smiles all around.
Club captain, Zoe Willis said that game “was quite something” adding: “Winning at the end we had a bit of momentum and then started to drop obviously we lost Alyssa early and we’re thinking about her and we managed to pull it all together and get it [the win] at the end!”
Tickets for the Eagles final two games of the regular season, first on Saturday 11 April against Nottingham Wildcats and finally against Caledonia Gladiators on Saturday 25 April, are on sale from the box office. Both are sure to be exciting games you won’t want to miss.
