After two very close but ultimately great wins at home against Leicester and Manchester, the Newcastle Eagles are on the road on Thursday night when they travel to New City College Hackney to take on the improving London Lions.

Head Coach Chloe Gaynor started her preview of that match-up by talking about her side’s two recent home wins.

“Two close games and wins have given the team the confidence that we can handle runs within the game and gives us an opportunity to learn how to win. You can have the big wins, but what does it take when the games on the line.”

“Do we have the ability and composure to make plays when it counts, and it’s enabled us to learn if we have that. Teams have to learn how to win. As a whole the team managed both those games and the crucial moments well. It shows we can find ways to win.”

“We’ve talked about those moments when we’ve allowed teams to come back into games, we seemed to have had won. It starts with our defence. We have to get stops to allow us to play in transition.”

“We have to look at how we reset in those moments and hone in on getting back to fundamentals and playing our brand of basketball. We have to look at how to plug the drains to stop that happening. At the end of the day the players have to take control of what’s in front of them.”

And speaking about London Gaynor had this to say.

“Every team has improved across the season and London specifically. They beat Manchester in overtime and have had some really competitive games. Jamila Thompson has been massive for them recently with a triple-double at Manchester. They have a lot of threats for us to be aware of.”

“The game will be a lot more competitive and closer than when we beat them 79-60 at home earlier this season and will be a great game for people to watch and we’re excited for it. It’ll come down simply to who plays the better basketball on the day.”

Once again through injuries and unavailability Eagles are likely to be without Alyssa Marin and Harriett Ottewill-Soulsby but will have Jada Dapaa and Sarah Wells in their line-up who did not play against Lions first time around as Gaynor advised.

“It’s about who is available and what we’re doing to put those players in the best situation to be successful. We have to use the versality we have on offer in the squad. Everyone doing their role and doing it well in order for us to be successful.”

“I’m very proud of the way the team has responded to adversity. It’s been the theme of the season. We have to make sure that we continue to respond well to adversity as it’s been a measure of our success.”

“I thought the team handled what happened last week to Alyssa exceptionally well. It’s not fun to see your teammate carried off to hospital. The team did well to get a win in that circumstance.”

“Adversity builds teams. Credit to them for their closeness and effort they put in to being a team and doing the intangibles day in and day out.”

And as ever Gaynor gave her keys to the game and what she believes her side need to do to gate a win to keep their winning run going as they look to make a run at the play-offs.

“We have to concentrate on ourselves and be the best version of us. Key in on the little things. Making sure we’re getting stops and running off them. Rebounding and run. Be confident in our versatility and our ability to defend the basketball.”

“We played some of our best defence of the season in the last two games for good stretches. We need to do that for longer. We have to hone in our personnel we guard with intent and we’re purposeful in what we do offensively.”

Tip-off in London is at 18:00 as Gaynor and her Eagles look for a victory to keep them within sight of a top four finish and a home play-off game at the end of the season.

The game is free to watch live on the SLB YouTube channel.