Fab Flournoy has been rewarded with the Molten BBL Coach of the Month award for March after leading Esh Group Eagles Newcastle to a perfect seven wins from seven games during the period.
The flawless run by the Eagles has seen the player-coach take his team to the brink of the BBL Championship title and they are now potentially three wins away from finishing top of the pile.
Having opened up their March campaign with a comfortable 94-74 home floor success against Plymouth University Raiders thanks to 18 points each from Darius Defoe and Paul Gause, the acid test was always going to be successive games against defending champions, Leicester Riders.
And, Flournoy and his players emerged with flying colours – although it could not have been any closer, after the Eagles took consecutive victories by a single point in a couple of typically absorbing encounters.
They firstly claimed an 84-83 win on the road at the John Sandford Centre, needing to survive a late rally by the home side to hold out for a valuable success.
Then, there was a sense of déjà vu as the Eagles triumphed 97-96 in front of their jubilant home supporters inside Sport Central, who were treated to an overtime classic as Malik Cooke delivered a 28-point MVP performance.
Then, after a decidedly more comfortable 95-67 win on their own floor against London Lions, Flournoy masterminded three away wins in a row to finish the month.
Although it was far from straightforward against a trio of play-off chasers, who all pushed the Eagles hard and forced them into once again demonstrating their ability to grind out tight wins.
The Eagles produced a fine shooting display to get past old foes Glasgow Rocks 89-84 at the Emirates Arena and that took them to within touching distance of getting through March unbeaten.
Last weekend saw them pitched against a resurgent Manchester Giants and they had to dodge a last second bullet to take a precious 83-82 win, with Cooke once again very much the main man.
Then concluding their most productive period of the entire campaign, they fought off some stiff resistance against Durham Wildcats to prevail 99-95 in the north-east derby.
The other main contender for the award was Worcester Wolves’ head coach Paul James, who won the accolade last month.
He picked up four wins from five games during March, memorably sealing a historical BBL Trophy Final win against Glasgow Rocks in front of a crowd of over 5,000 fans at the Emirates Arena.
