Newcastle Eagles 87 (28,52,66) (Defoe 22, Jackson 15, Smith 13)
BiG Storage Cheshire Jets 73 (13,27,47) (Virgil 27, Phifer 19, Gayle 9)
Newcastle Eagles maintained their stranglehold on pole position in the BBL Championship table thanks to a comfortable 87-73 victory over the BiG Storage Cheshire Jets at the Metro Radio Arena on Friday evening. After the tight opening exchanges it was the home side who made the first break in the game thanks to a 7-1 burst to take the score out to 11-3 early on in the opening quarter. A further 11-3 tear to close out the opening period saw the Eagles taking the score out to 28-13. In the second quarter the Eagles broke the game open with a 13-3 run across the half-time break to take the score out to 59-25 at the start of the third period.
The Eagles enjoyed their biggest lead of the game at 57-29 midway through the third quarter. The visitors began to claw their way back into the game and closed the deficit to nineteen points at 66-47 going into the final stanza. In the final period the Jets continued to close the deficit but they could not close the gap sufficiently as the Eagles ran out comfortable winners. Darius Defoe led the scoring for the Eagles with 22 points, but it was Alto Virgil who led all scorers in the game with 27 points for the Jets.