The Newcastle Eagles are the first team to 10 BBL Championship wins this season as they sent a message to their title rivals.

The Eagles played host to the third-placed Glasgow Rocks and comprehensively won the battle of the league’s two northernmost teams, 97-71, to beat the Rocks for the second time in little over a month. Charles Smith led their scoring with 28 points, while Andrew Thomson had a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds.

After a tight first opening fifteen minutes – that saw the Rocks leading for much of the way and the Eagles hanging in courtesy of Charles Smith’s scoring – the Eagles came out of a timeout with six straight points and a 13-4 burst, capped by an Andrew Bridge three-pointer, to take a half time lead at 47-46 that they would not relinquish.

The Eagles carried their momentum into the third quarter and stretched their lead, seeing it reach 8 points at 63-55 on Thomson’s three-pointer and then 68-59 as he repeated the trick within the final minute of the period. The lead reached double-figures before the third was finished as Paul Gause’s buzzer-beater made it 70-59. The lead peaked at 26 points in a dominant fourth quarter that the relentless Eagles won 27-12.