Newcastle Eagles produced a spectacular opening home night performance in the Vertu Arena on Friday night to take their first Super League Basketball (SLB) Championship win of the 2026/27 season.
The Eagles came out flying and were relentless throughout the 40 minutes as they blew Bristol Flyers away 94 – 68. It was in particular a great defensive effort that sparked enough offence to make a real statement of intent.
New guard Tavis Smith had 22 points to lead Newcastle whilst the returning Mitch Clarke had 19 from the bench. Captain for the night Cole Long weighed in with 13 points and two more newcomers forward Cam Christon and point guard Blondeau Tchoukuiegno both netted 11.
“We felt good coming into the game. It was our first home game, so we wanted to set the tone for the season and I think we did,” said Tchoukuiegno.
“We played hard for 40 minutes compared to the game in London where we felt like we played good for 30 minutes and for 10 minutes we didn’t play so good.
“Our focus for this game was to play good basketball for 40 minutes and I think we did and that helped us get the win.”
The intent and determination was evident from the first tip and by the end of the first period Newcastle led 29 points to 16 and it was almost game done then. Tchoukuiegno reflected on that.
“That was our plan from the start. We didn’t want to let them breath at all,” the guard added.
“We wanted to play hard defence from the first second to the last second and that’s what we did today. It was a good game, but we have a couple of things to clean up.
“We turned the ball over too much actually and we’re going to go back watch this game, learn from it and move forward.”
The one thing Tchoukuiegno can watch and learn from is his own personal performance which was superb and earned him MVP honours on the night. Alongside his 11 points the dynamic all-action guard also had 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 steals and zero turnovers.
In a team that had 19 turnovers on the night his was an excellent effort and enabled him to help his side shrug off those turnovers and yet still put 94 points on the board.
The Canadian concluded: “It was pretty satisfying and I feel like we have a good team. We had five players in double digits. It just says everything about our team. We have players coming off the bench and players starting that can get the job done.
“It was great. I love the atmosphere here. I felt like we did a great job playing hard in front of the fans and they responded. It has set the tone for the games going forward.
It is of course early days and only one win in the right column. But as a statement of intent and a promise of what is still to come it was an excellent start for this new look exciting Newcastle Eagles roster.
