It was the Newcastle Eagles who came away from a packed derby day crowd in the Vertu Motors Arena on Saturday night with local bragging rights after a hard-fought 81 – 75 win over the Durham Palatinates.

The Eagles deserved their victory after holding off a determined Durham fightback in the second half.

Newcastle had been dominate in the first half and in particular the second quarter to take an 18-point lead at 46 – 28 into the locker rooms after the opening 20 minutes of the game.

But Head Coach Chloe Gaynor’s team also took an injured Tierra Hodges into the break with them.

Hodges had been excellent in helping Eagles establish that early and in the end crucial first half advantage. Fifteen points and four rebounds in only 15 minutes played.

However, when she went over on her ankle it gave the Palatinates hope that perhaps even an 18-point deficit at the half was not insurmountable. Especially with the powerful inside play of Harriet Ottewill-Soulsby who no long had Hodges to guard.

Gaynor’s hand was further compromised by not being able to play Kendall Currence as much as she would have like.

Currence returning from injury had been told to play restricted minutes and did. In a shade under 15 minutes, she netted 9 points showing what her value could have been for Newcastle.

It meant that in the second half Gaynor had to go to the bench and ask Zoe Willis, Rachael Bland and Sarah Birkett to all play valuable support minutes which they did to help Newcastle stay in front in a tough second half.

Jada Guinn continued her fine League form with a game-high 22-points and fellow starter Swiss International Shannon Hatch also logged significant and effective minutes, but it was perhaps the contributions of point guard Lauren Saiki and forward Abby Lowe that caught the eye.

Saiki had a tremendous double-double of 13 points and 11 assists adding in 7 crucial steals as she controlled the tempo of the Eagles play.

Whilst Lowe back to her best was a bundle of all-over court energy and had 15 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals in a real return to form.

It meant that despite Durham winning the third quarter by 27 points to 22 and the last ten minutes by 20 to 13 it wasn’t quite enough to take a victory away from an Eagles side that moved to a 7 wins and 3 loss record and a fourth placed position in the standings at the moment. An excellent position.

Following the game a clearly tired but jubilant Lowe assessed how her side had gotten over the line.

“Going into half time we said we needed to squash the gap but we didn’t quite do that and kind of messed up”, said Lowe.

“But we fixed it ourselves and sorted the problems out and we won!

“It’s a lot of hard work when Tierra isn’t around that’s for sure. Today we had to practice fighting back playing chaotic and playing messy with Durham and we matched them in what is really their style of play.

“I think that was good and shows we have more to our game.”

Eagles now move on and have a huge SLB Cup Semi-Final this coming Friday down in Sheffield against a very strong Hatters side.

“It’s good to go into that game with another win. Sheffield are an even tougher, stronger bigger team. I’m really, really looking forward to the semi-final”, Lowe added.

“We need to make a final again and we need to win it so we have to be ready to face Sheffield.”

Friday’s SLB Cup Semi-Final will be live on YouTube and fans looking to fly away with our Eagles to the game can buy tickets from our box office.