Sooner or later the Newcastle Eagles, under new head coach Chloe Gaynor will lose a game. It’s inevitable. But for now, they continue to ride the honeymoon period under their new play-caller. Saturday’s 81 – 73 home win over Essex Rebels making it three out of three for player-coach Gaynor.

This was a tough game for the Eagles against an Essex side that rebelled on more than one occasion and threatened briefly to be the team to dent Gaynor’s 100% record. But when it was needed Newcastle came up with the crucial plays at the crucial times to quell the Rebel Yell.

But in the end it was the Eagles who flew straight and decisively down the stretch to take another great win that sends them to Cardiff next weekend for their last Championship game of 2024 in excellent spirits and form.

A win in that fixture against a Met Archers side struggling so far could actually give the Eagles a SLB Cup Semi-Final slot as well. The quirky qualifying conditions for semis being decided by league winning percentages.

That though is getting ahead of themselves for Newcastle. They’ll take stock and prepare for the Cardiff clash by reviewing their performance against Essex and then ramp up their findings from the analysis to hopefully continue their progress.

Saturday’s win was a good all-round team performance. Abby Lowe and Lauren Saiki playing good supporting contributions and Zoe Willis with player-coach Gaynor giving effective cameo minutes from the bench.

But in the main, Kendall Currence, 9 points, 7 rebounds, 6 steals, Shannon Hatch 11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and Tierra Hodges 23 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals were the superb supporting cast for Jada Guinn to continue to show her star quality.

The rookie American guard is in irresistible form at the moment. Coming into the game as the the league’s Player of the Month she celebrated with another huge performance netting 31 points and adding in 3 rebounds and 3 assists to take the MVP honours on the night and receiving the fan-voted Enigma Tap MVP award for November.

Seemingly able to make a bucket whenever her side needed it her efforts went a long way to help get her side over the line by the time the final buzzer sounded after Eagles shrugged off a determined Rebels fightback.

The opening stages of the game were tight with Lauren Park-Lane the Essex point guard looking a real threat for the visitors they matched Newcastle early on before a strong home run led by Guinn and Hodges helped them to a seven-point lead at the end of the first.

Eagles had the momentum now and with Currence adding energy from the bench and Hatch continuing to set the tone it was 50 – 35 at the half and Rebels coach Ashley Cookson had plenty to ponder.

That became a bigger conundrum for his side as a Guinn drive and Hodges lay-up gave Newcastle their biggest lead at 54 – 37 with a tick under eight minutes to play in the third. The game looked over but Essex had other ideas and by the end of the third were within ten at 65 – 55.

The visitors then started the final period with an 8 – 0 run that got them back to within two points at 65 – 63 with just over eight minutes still to play. Now it was game-on. The Eagles though did not panic, they stuck to their principles and replied with eight unanswered points to reestablish control.

Rebels had one more effort in them but time was running out. They closed to within five points but were forced into fouling to try and slow the clock down. Eagles showed real character by sinking five of six from the charity stripe and then Guinn’s final two-pointer closed the deal in an appropriate manner