BBL Championship
Surrey Scorchers 69 (17,37,60) (Williams 21, Ross-Miller 17, Ogedengbe 14)
Esh Group Eagles Newcastle 80 (19,42,58) (Fletcher 21, A Thomson 20, Martin 13)

Esh Group Eagles Newcastle survived a huge scare on their way to an 80-69 victory away at Surrey Scorchers in the BBL Championship, on Sunday.

The home side led by five in the fourth, but Newcastle rallied and produced a strong finish to claim the win in the absences of Charles Smith and Drew Lasker.

Rahmon Fletcher stepped up with 21 points for the visitors with Andrew Thomson finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Surrey also played with a seven-man rotation, and found themselves trailing by as many as eight points in the opening period before hitting back with an 8-0 response. Newcastle threatened to pull away again in the second with a 12-4 run, only for the Scorchers to close the gap to just five at the half.

The Eagles maintained their advantage for most of the third, until Tayo Ogedengbe capped a 10-2 run with a three to fire his side into their first lead. Surrey led by two going into the final quarter, and increased their advantage to five at 66-61 inside the opening two minutes.

The game was in the balance, tied at 68 with little over three minutes remaining before the league leaders took over with Fletcher scoring five straight points to spark a game-winning 12-1 run.

Jordan Williams top scored for the Scorchers with 21 points to go with 10 rebounds, while Tayo Ogedengbe also added a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards to move to 998 rebounds in his BBL career.

While Newcastle improve to 24-2 in the BBL Championship, Surrey drop to a 6-19 record as their post-season hopes hang by a thread.