Victory caps a perfect month

Apr 1 2009 The Journal

IF it was advantage Newcastle after Sunday’s terrific win at Liverpool, it’s almost certainly game, set and match after the Eagles once again defeated closest rivals Everton Tigers last night, writes JEFF KING.

Former world boxing champion Glenn McCrory was an interested spectator and brought along two of the sport’s finest prospects to watch with him. Alexei Acosta and Mike Perez couldn’t have failed to be impressed as the Cubans could not have dealt a knock-out punch any better than Fab Flournoy’s high-flying Eagles.

Newcastle now need only a further two wins from their remaining five fixtures to retain their BBL Championship. Last night’s win completed a perfect March – the Eagles have played nine and won nine in that period.

All games have been won by double-digit margins and they also picked up the BBL Trophy on the way. While the title is not yet secured, it would be a very foolish person that would put even the smallest amount of loose change on anyone else winning it. Everton came into this game simply having to win to realistically have any chance of catching Newcastle. They were boosted by the return to action of high-scoring Josh Gross.

Eagles jumped out to an early lead courtesy of four points from Andrew Bridge but Tigers fought back and took a 10-9 lead on an Andre Smith bucket. Back came the Eagles with a Charles Smith triple but Everton led 18-16 until Bridge’s triple was the last score of the quarter to make it 19-18 Eagles after one. A 10-0 start to the second by Newcastle including triples from Reggie Jackson and Trey Moore eased them out to a 29-18 lead. Eight points from Charles Smith and six from Tafari Toney meant the Eagles went in to the locker room 50-35 up.

Tigers cut the gap to seven until two further baskets from Charles Smith moved them back to 10 up at 61-51. His namesake Andre inspired his side again and suddenly at 61-57 it was game on.

Two more baskets from Smith, another from Moore, and it was 70-57 with 10 minutes to play. Moore tripled at the start of the final period to move Newcastle 16 points in front and when Jackson scored four in a row it was 79-61.

Everton fought back with an 11-0 run to close to within five at 79-74 but Jackson stepped up and drilled a killer two and then two more from the free-throw line to make it a nine-point gap once again.

The last word went to Moore who inside the final 90 seconds made four free-throws and a final deuce to bring the retention of the BBL Championship well within Eagles’ grasp. With two wins required and lowly Worcester Wolves and Scottish Rock to visit the Arena in the next games, it could well be that Flournoy’s men wrap up the league with two weeks of the season to go.

NEWCASTLE SCORERS: Trey Moore 21, Charles Smith 21,Reggie Jackson17

EVERTON SCORERS: Andre Smith 33, Olu Babalola 17, Josh Gross 15