Guildford Heat 101, Newcastle Eagles 108

Apr 7 2008 by Jeff King, The Journal

NEWCASTLE Eagles are the BBL Champions for 2007-08. It’s as simple as that. What was not so simple was the way they achieved it.

Fab Flournoy and his team pulled off perhaps the most astonishing win of the season to seal the championship in Guildford yesterday.

At one point in the game the Eagles were down by 20 points and even going into the final quarter were still 18 down. But somehow and in some way they came up big once again, forced the game to overtime and then took the honours to stun The Heat on their own court.

It is a fabulous achievement by the Eagles and one they richly deserve as once again they reign supreme as champions of British basketball. All season long they have fought adversity and now they can stand proud.

In the first quarter it was The Heat who jumped out through a five-point lead. But, as a sign of things to come, Newcastle came storming back and produced an 8-0 run to take a 31-30 lead at the end of the first.

The second started with the Eagles stretching their lead to eight points and then things started going astray. Guildford turned up the heat and powered into the Eagles. And an astonishing turnaround saw the home side go into the locker rooms at the half up 63-55. Worse was to come as Newcastle couldn’t find a way back and Heat were seemingly cruising to a big win as they opened a 20-point gap at 88-68. Darius Defoe scored the last basket of the third but an 18-point deficit was a big mountain for the Eagles to climb.

But Flournoy rallied his troops and they marched up that mountain, clawing the Guildford lead back with Steve Leven and the irrepressible Lynard Stewart in fine form. Somehow they got back into the game and it was coach Flournoy who netted the two free throws that took the game to overtime on the back of an astonishing 26-8 final quarter.

In overtime there was only one team in it. Skipper Bridge hit a huge three to take Newcastle into the lead and then they closed the game out with Guildford a well beaten side.

This was a marvellous effort from Newcastle as they won back to back overtime games this weekend to take the title.

Flournoy will no doubt allow his charges to enjoy their success for a couple of days before he begins his planning for the end of season play-offs – which give the country’s leading franchise the possibility of more glory.

The MK Lions still look good for fourth spot after beating the Birmingham Panthers 95-74. Closest rivals Scottish Rocks remain fifth after an 89-81 victory over Cheshire Jets while Sheffield Sharks beat Worcester Wolves 99-69.

TOP SCORERS

NEWCASTLE EAGLES: Steve Leven 30, Lynard Stewart 20, Darius Defoe 18.

GUILDFORD HEAT: Daniel Gilbert 27, Mike Martin 24, EJ Harrison 21.