Fired-up Newcastle Eagles snapped a five-game winless streak to throw this year’s Championship title race wide open.

A 93-90 victory against third-placed Leicester Riders reignited the home side’s top four challenge.

And there was double joy for Marc Steutel’s men after second-placed Sheffield Sharks slipped up on the road at Manchester.

Sensational Seneca Knight led the Newcastle charge as two of British basketball’s fiercest rivals locked horns for the fourth time in four weeks.

The US star — playing point for much of his time on court — added 10 assists to his 21 points.

‘Money’ Mike Okaru led the Eagles scoring with 22 after recovering from a hand injury sustained the previous week.

And no-nonsense Knight found further support in the shape of Cole Long and Josh Ward-Hibbert with the all-action duo combining for 28 points and 12 boards.

Leicester won three quarters of a nip and tuck clash as the Riders sought to exact revenge for last month’s Trophy exit at the hands of Newcastle.

But the hosts exploded after the break to take a pivotal third period 31-16 and open up a nine-point lead heading into the final stanza.

And despite Rob Paternostro’s men closing to within two in the final 10 seconds, the focused hosts stayed strong to close out a crucial league win.

“That was a really tough and gritty victory for us,” said Steutel, after anchoring a first win since December 6 — also against Leicester.

“We did a really good job at different times in the game but the third quarter obviously stands out in terms of us playing our best basketball.

“In the first 20 minutes we just didn’t have the right pace, purpose, tempo, intensity — whatever word you want to use — when it came to offence.

“Our smarts were lacking and we just weren’t achieving what we set out to achieve.”

Steutel made a very public intervention 44 seconds into the second quarter after storming onto court to question his players’ application and communication.

A fiery time-out sought to turn the tables on an increasingly confident Leicester and within seven minutes the hosts had regained the lead — on the back of two booming Will Neighbour triples.

The veteran centre announced his long-awaited return to competitive action with a hat-trick of three-pointers inside eight minutes.

And Newcastle’s threat from beyond the arc proved to be key as the men in black converted 13 of their 29 threes on the night.

Riders led by six at the break and the Eagles lost both Darius Defoe and Ward-Hibbert down the stretch as two of the club’s most wily operators fell foul of the whistle-happy officials.

But Steutel’s men had done enough during that thrilling third period to lay the foundations for a fabulous win at the start of a run of three games in just five days.

“I was really, really pleased with that performance,” added Steutel. “Leicester is a good team coming off a big win on Monday.

“We’ve also seen each other a lot in the last few weeks and that can be difficult.

“I was frustrated at times in the first half but I thought we did a good job defensively in the second. The foul count suggests otherwise so I’ll have to go back and look at that.”

Riders got to the line 34 times but missed 10 of their free throws — a statistic that must have rankled with a crestfallen Paternostro.

And ultimately it was Leicester’s profligacy from the bonus stripe that opened the door to a Newcastle side starting 2025 with a bang.

The Eagles play away at Surrey tomorrow and are back in European action on Tuesday at home, before a changed scheduled next weekend.

Tickets for the Tuesday night ENBL game are available now from the box office.