After two magnificent statement home wins over highly ranked Oaklands Wolves and Caledonia Gladiators in the last two weeks the Newcastle Eagles are in action on the road at Barking Abbey tonight against the London Lions.

They take their 9 wins 3 losses record to the home of a side who are in complete contrast to the all-conquering Lions side of last season. This current London side is reck-bottom of The Super League Basketball Championship with zero wins from their 12 games played.

It is therefore a superb opportunity for Newcastle to continue their fabulous run of form and further cement their place in the top four of the standings. Former Barking Academy star Zoe Willis previewed the task ahead of her teammates and herself tonight.

The guard, almost turned forward, has produced impressive supporting defensive contributions in the last few weeks and is really showing what the team ethos of this Eagles side is all about. She started by reflecting on the previous two weeks’ wins.

“Our mood right now is pretty high. We’re feeling like that we’re doing very well to compete with the top end teams. Obviously, we dropped the Sheffield game but beating Oaklands and Caledonia and going so close with Sheffield means we know we’re a top four team now.”

“We’re just pressing to finish as high as we can and looking to create a record for The Club. I think we’re the closest a team has ever been. We believe that any given day we can beat any team in the League and that’s a great place to be in. We can win out if we want to and that’s our aim now.”

Looking at Willis’ own personal contribution the support she’s giving from the bench has been significant particularly as she’s more often than not having to play out of position and guard much taller players to help her team out inside.

“Me and Chloe go way back, we’re quite close and she understands my game. My role has changed a lot within the team coming more as an impact player. I’m not really bothered about scoring the basketball its what I can bring to the team defensively.”

“With the step-up I’ve not really defended the bigger line-up of forwards before so it’s a challenge to myself but it’s a challenge I’ve taken on and hopefully I’m coming out of the better end of it at the moment.”

“I’m 100% enjoying it. I’m not really bothered about my individual basketball as long as the team’s doing good I don’t care what the stats sheet says at the end of the day as long as the team comes up better for it and we’re in a better place.”

Its that kind of attitude and commitment that is making this Eagles side a formidable opponent at the moment and one that should take the court in Barking tonight full of confidence that they can pick up another vital win.

“There’s every reason for us to be complacent but we really have to knuckle down and not be complacent especially at this point of time. We’re not overlooking this game it’s one we must win. We have Oaklands in the return in the following week.”

“So, this is another game to prepare us to have another solid performance against them in the away trip next weekend to hopefully get them again.”

“We must not be complacent against London though. Our best basketball is when we’re playing at pace and getting down the floor in transition and as well lock up defensively. They’ve got some sneaky players and they crash the offensive boards really well.”

“We did beat them last game but that’s what they killed us on in the last game but there were still some errors against them in the home win that we need to fix going into this game to get that win we need.”

With Willis and her teammates in such determined and together mode it looks like Newcastle should come away tonight with another win that will help them as the season begins to wind down towards the play-off stage.

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