A tremendous performance at both ends of the floor saw Newcastle Eagles get their regular season Championship campaign off to a winning start on Sunday evening. A dominating 94 to 71 points win at arch-rivals Caledonia Gladiators despite having a depleted line-up was very impressive indeed.

Head Coach Marc Steutel had demanded a response from his players after they lost at home to Manchester on Friday night in a Trophy Group game. Some had said that that game was a ‘dead-rubber’ and not important but Steutel himself will tell you that every game matters in basketball.

Indeed, the fiery adopted Geordie had been ejected from Friday night’s game late on after contesting an official’s call a little too vociferously. Perhaps showing such passion in what was meant to be a meaningless game showed his charges exactly how he wants them to approach each and every game.

Eagles were once again unable to call upon the services of Captain Darius Defoe who will be missing for a few weeks with an Achilles issue and Will Neighbour who continues to be side-lined by a niggling long-term injury. They did though have Josh Ward-Hibbert back in the starting line-up.

The GB International didn’t play a single minute on Friday night but not only returned to the starting line-up he was installed as Captain in place of the absent Defoe. He certainly showed leadership qualities early on as he ripped off the first 7 Eagles points as Newcastle made a strong start.

Unfortunately, after racking up his ninth point of the game to put Eagles up by double-digits at 17 to 7 he went down with what looked like a bad knock after only 5 minutes and 25 seconds. He was unable to return for the remainder of the game.

It may have been a blow too many for Newcastle but his teammates had other ideas and showed the determination, cohesion, togetherness and sheer will to put his absence behind them and go on to dominate the Gladiators for the rest of the game. Cole Long coming off the bench to good effect.

He added his power and scoring to the likes of De’Sean Allen-Eikens, Seneca Knight and Malcolm Delpeche who all had huge games and despite Ward-Hibbert’s absence the Eagles didn’t miss a beat. Good defence and free-flowing offence seeing them up 28 to 19 after the first quarter.

Triples by Mike Okauru and Sauver Kande in powerful Eagles scoring runs took their lead up to 18-points in the second. Kande turning those big impactful minutes in the Trophy game on Friday into this game as Eagles played with a ‘next man-up’ mentality to lead 49 to 31 at halftime.

The third period was the only one the Eagles didn’t win although at one stage they did get the lead up to 23-points at 56 to 33. A slight Caledonia rally pulled it back slightly but another triple by Allen-Eikens and one from Long re-established the gap.

Caledonia now playing for pride did finish the third with a 7 – 2 run to tie the quarter at 19-points apiece but still had a massive 18-point deficit to pull back in the final ten minutes which was going to be tough.

So, it proved. Gladiators did on a couple of occasions get back to within 13-points but Newcastle always seemed to be and indeed were in control of the situation and as Caledonia got more desperate The Eagles got more measured.

A late 9 – 3 run inside the last two minutes giving them an emphatic road victory and one that shows that this side might just be one that is as together as any have been for a few seasons. Their scoring was solid, Knight adding to his points tally with 10 rebounds for a double-double.

Allen-Eaikens led the Eagles scorers but in truth every single player who stepped onto the court gave valuable and important contributions in a brilliant team win.

Marc Steutel’s men are in European North Basketball League action tomorrow night against Donar Groningen with tip-off at 7:30pm and tickets are still available on the box office.