Newcastle Eagles 113, Scottish Rocks 89

Jan 5 2008 by Jeff King, The Journal

A METRONOMIC performance at the Arena last night put the Newcastle Eagles in A1 position in their BBL Trophy group as they sent the Scottish Rocks back over the border well and truly beaten.

The Eagles oozed class and consistency at both ends of the court all night and their normally fierce rivals simply had no answer to the powerful display.

The day had started well for Newcastle with the news that forward Charles Smith had been voted the BBL player of the month for December. By the end of the night he was one of six Eagles players who hit double figures in an all-round display of team basketball that is the hallmark of Fab Flournoy’s team. In this kind of mood it’s going to take some team to stop their run for glory.

New signing Bryan Defares could only sit and admire his new team-mates from the bench as his international clearance had not come through in time to play. However, he could not fail to be impressed and now knows the standards he needs to set for himself.

The scoring was started by an Olu Babalola triple, but the Rocks replied with five points of their own to take an early lead. Games between these two sides are normally tight, tense affairs and this one in the first period appeared to be heading that way. Jeremy Hyatt’s first three-point basket of the night gave the Eagles a 13-8 lead but Rocks again came back until a 7-0 run gave the Eagles the first quarter 27-23 lead.

Into the second and again it was close, and midway through the Rocks had cut the gap to 35-34. Then the Eagles went in to overdrive.

With powerhouse Babalola netting six and silky smooth Smith adding four, Newcastle produced a fabulous 13-0 burst to blow the game open. Then to add insult to injury for the Rocks, Lynard Stewart produced a first ever three-point basket in Eagles colours on the half time buzzer to make the lead 53-38 as the teams headed for the locker room.

The third quarter was all about two men, Eagles captain Andrew Bridge and Hyatt. Bridge scored 11 points in that stretch including nine of 10 from the free-throw line and Hyatt nailed four more triples, including one from NBA range as the third quarter wound down to give the Eagles an unassailable 84-60 lead with one period to go.

With only one team to qualify from a three-team group that includes Everton Tigers there was no let-up from Flournoy’s men. They continued to take the game to Rocks, with Babalola and Stewart dominant inside and Smith and Hyatt shooting well from outside.

Rocks desperately tried to cut some of the basket difference back but only succeeded in tying the quarter to leave the final score an impressive 113-89 to Newcastle.

That’s two wins out of two in the BBL Trophy group now for the Eagles and a 24-point win certainly gives them the edge over the Rocks with another group game to play later in the month up in Glasgow. However, before that the Eagles have got some BBL Championship games and a cup final to look forward to.

It starts at Worcester tonight and if Newcastle produce a win over the Wolves they’ll go back to the top of the BBL Championship and make it a perfect start to the year.

TOP SCORERS

NEWCASTLE EAGLES: Olu Babalola 21, Andrew Bridge 21, Jeremy Hyatt 21.

SCOTTISH ROCKS: Sterling Davis 19, Rob Yanders 18, Maurice Hampton 18.