The Newcastle Eagles are on their European adventures once again on Wednesday. They play Rigas Zelli of Latvia in their latest European North Basketball League qualifying round game. Newcastle still looking to break their duck in the ENBL this season and are currently 0-4 in the competition.

They go into the game not just hoping to kick-start their European campaign but also get back to winning ways in general after another disappointing double-header losing weekend in the SLB Championship.

After losing at home on Friday to Bristol in overtime 83-85 they also went down to another close defeat in Manchester on Sunday afternoon 98-102. Head Coach Marc Steutel in previewing the trip to Latvia gave his post-game thoughts on that Manchester loss.

“Again disappointing to not win. Offensively we were better for the most part. Still a few IQ possessions that I’d like us to learn from and develop. But offensively the guys got the ball moving.”

“We had contributions from a lot and what we wanted to try and do to exploit against them I thought we did a solid job of.”

“Defensively we allowed 38 points in the paint in the first half and that’s just too many. I was disappointed with how they were able to score in the paint and with our connectivity on that defensive end.”

“We’ve got to continue to try and turn these fine margins around but I believe that we are going to and are trying to continually get better.”

Better is what they’ll need to be if they are to get their first win in the ENBL this season especially against a tough Latvian side. Rigas are currently 3-3 in the ENBL although all three wins have actually come on the road. The last time out was an 85-81 win at Spartak Pleven.

Perhaps their home form is a chink of light for Steutel and his players. But domestically the side only formed in 2023 are having a good season and are second in the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League with a 14-win 4 loss record. Steutel knows they are a tough test for his side.

“We know that the Latvian team are a really strong team and are doing well in the Latvian-Estonia league domestically. They’ve got a lot of strengths. We’ve had a chance to scout them and get into their ideas and concepts.”

“We’re going to have to be at our best if we’re going to try and get our first win of the campaign. Everyone is focused and motivated to do so and we’ll see where we can get too.”

Rigas currently have the top scorer in the ENBL in rookie American forward Frankie Fidler who is averaging 24.8 points per game as well as 5.2 rebounds. His main support coming from experienced Latvian forward Janis Berzins who nets at 11.3 points a game adding in 4.8 rebounds.

One other danger to the Eagles may be a bit of an unknown quantity, Explosive point guard Jackie Johnson III has only just arrived in Latvia this month inking his first professional contract after graduating from Fordham University last summer. Johnson is yet to play in an ENBL game.

Tip-off in the Daugavas Sporta Nams Centre, Riga is at 17:30pm GMT on Wednesday night.