Remember this date. A record-breaking night in the Vertu Arena for one man as he smashed a Newcastle club record. Ray’Sean Taylor. That’s it, that’s the match report done and dusted in two words and one name.

An astonishing individual performance led the Eagles to a much-needed win in the Championship. A run of sixth successive league defeats was ended in the most spectacular way as Taylor inspired his teammates back to winning ways.

Fifty-one points! A new Newcastle record and the highest individual score ever thus far in the SLB Championship. Taylor made eleven of twelve two-point shots inside the arc. Five of fifteen from beyond the 3-point line and fourteen of eighteen attempts from the free throw line.

Add in the minor matter of eight rebounds, a team high, three assists and three steals and it was perhaps the easiest ever MVP award to make. A quite remarkable effort that was a pleasure to witness as Taylor eclipsed the great Charles Smith’s forty-nine-point effort from back in 2013.

However, Taylor couldn’t have done it without assistance from his teammates who certainly responded to his efforts and responded to their coach’s challenge. The Eagles had been disappointing in midweek at Manchester losing 105-79 in a poor performance.

Head Coach Marc Steutel had called his players’ performance in the North West unacceptable and frustrating. He had demanded an immediate positive response and by the end of a dominant forty minutes from his side that’s exactly what he got.

Steutel played his part as well. Shaking up the starting five and going ‘small ball’ to combat Surrey’s triple-guard threat of Kino Lilly Jr, Tyrin Lawrence, and Ronald Polite III. It worked to almost perfection as Eagles restricted the trio to just a combined fifteen points on the night.

Given that these three were averaging almost fifty-one points combined per game going into last night’s clash that was some defensive effort from Newcastle. Indeed, Surrey were indebted to forward Isiah Small who was the only 89er in double figure scoring by the end of the game.

His twenty-seven points and twelve rebounds a valiant double-double in a losing cause but paling into insignificance when matched up with Taylor’s statistics. Plus, Eagles had three other players in double figures during the forty minutes.

Starters Maceo Jack who has been in fine form personally despite Newcastle’s poor run had sixteen points including two thunderous dunks whilst Cole Long was as solid as ever with twelve points and five rebounds. Gus Okafor adding ten points and four rebounds from the bench.

With Terrell Burden Jr out through an injury sustained at Manchester, veteran Darius Defoe also unavailable and Josh Ward-Hibbert still recuperating Steutel restored Taylor to the starting line-up. Alongside him he put Mitch Clarke, Deion Hammond, Jack and Long.

It worked. The Eagles set the tone defensively not allowing Surrey any easy looks as their committed effort restricted the visitors to only twelve points in the first period. Newcastle weren’t prolific at this stage but twenty points of their own gave them an eight-point cushion to start.

Taylor had five points at that stage but in the second exploded on the 89ers to devasting effect. Eighteen points in the quarter including Newcastle’s last ten of the half inside the last one minute twenty seconds was a real statement.

It included a triple on the buzzer to end the half as an exclamation point and give the high-flying Eagles a massive fifty-one to twenty-nine lead as the sides headed to the locker rooms. A thirty-one to seventeen-point quarter that virtually had the game won with still twenty minutes to go.

Surrey, and Small to their credit, did show some pride in the third period as the second half unfolded. The 89ers forward having eleven points in a quarter his side took three points to seventeen to temporarily halt Taylor and the Eagles.

But temporary it was as Taylor returned with a vengeance in the final period. He poured in another twenty-one points personally to go through the fifty-point barrier and smash the Newcastle record. Certainly, giving the word ‘unstoppable’ new meaning as Surrey had no answer to his brilliance.

It cumulated in a massive twenty-seven-point victory for the Eagles on a night and an occasion that no-one present in the Vertu Arena will ever forget. The night a rookie professional from Collinsville, Illinois out of Southern Illinois University became a Newcastle Eagles legend.