Newcastle Eagles 118 Worthing Thunder 80
Dec 18 2010 The Journal
It may have been freezing outside but inside Sport Central The Eagles warmed their faithful support with solid all-round performance shooting down lowly Worthing Thunder writes Jeff King.
And if they can go to Guildford today and see off The Heat then it’ll be a good Christmas for the whole Eagles family.
Last time Worthing came to Newcastle they almost pulled off a shock result and Head Coach Fab Flournoy was very aware of that fact as he returned to the court as a player following his long-injury lay-off.
His added energy and impetus plus Worthing’s loss of Centre John Nottley in the week made a huge difference to the outcome of the game.
Eagles certainly looked a more cohesive outfit after a sluggish start and with The Three Amigos, Joe Chapman, Charles Smith and Trey Moore leading their team superbly Thunder had no answers as they crashed to a heavy defeat.
Not that the top scoring trio were alone in their efforts as all the Eagles bench players also got on the scoring charts as they cruised to a convincing victory.
Early on Newcastle struggled as they missed their first eight shots and they trailed 11 - 9.
Then the shots started dropping and a powerful 10 - 0 run put them in front for the first time and it was a lead they never relinquished.
As the seconds ticked down in the first quarter Chapman launched an outrageous 60-yard shot that dropped in off the backboard and Eagles led 27 - 16.
In between the quarters Flournoy asked for the intensity to be turned up but his team didn’t quite answer that call allowing Thunder to have their best spell of the game as the sides traded buckets for the full 10 minutes with the visitors just sneaking the period 27 - 25 to cut the lead to 52 - 43 as the sides left for the locker rooms.
The second half and the third quarter in particular have not always been kind to Newcastle this season but this time it was different.
Chapman whose 15 first half points had all been triples and Moore were the catalysts for a fabulous third ten minutes when Newcastle really turned the screws.
Darius Defoe was the main recipient as he joined the double digits scorers as his side went on an offensive barrage netting 35 points in the period whilst also locking down Worthing at the other end to the tune of only 13 points.
It was game over and Flournoy with a razzle-dazzle pass to Defoe who slammed it home but the exclamation point meaning it was 87 - 56 with 10 minutes to go.
In the final period Newcastle continued their dominance as the back court duo of Moore and Chapman racked up the assists and Smith cleaned up the boards to complete an impressive double-double adding 11 rebounds to his high scoring performance.
With the game against Guildford in mind Flournoy rang the changes to save legs and conserve some energy, but his side were in the mood and all played their part as they stretched their lead in the final stanza and at the final buzzer had completed an impressive 38-point victory. So, part one of the double weekend completed and Flournoy and his players will be hoping that Santa Claus comes a little earlier this year and can present them with a win tonight in Guildford to take them in to the holiday season in festive mood and form.
NEWCASTLE: Joe Chapman 26, Trey Moore 24, Charles Smith 21
WORTHING: Adam Williams 20, Shaun Durant 15, Sherrad Prezzie-Blue & Mansour Mbeye
