NEWCASTLE Eagles continued where they had left off on Sunday at Sheffield with another demolition job on a Guildford team sitting in the top half of the table.

Their New Year has certainly been a happy one so far and, with powerful performances and results like this, they are starting to look like title contenders again.

The key to Newcastle’s success often comes with strong showings after the festive break, and it looks like they are ready to switch all engines to go as the rev-up for the long run-in to the end-of-season honours.

Once again defence was the key as the Eagles were in mean, lock-down mood throughout the 40 minutes and used this as a springboard to display their offensive talents and post another two points on the BBL table.

This time it was ‘Mighty’ Joe Chapman who led the way, adding 12 rebounds to his top scoring show for an impressive double-double. There was also a double-double from Big Man Kadiri Richard, who has certainly stepped up his game as his ten points, ten rebounds and four blocked shots show.

The evergreen Charles Smith was as smooth as silk once again, topping 20 points, while Darius Defoe was only a rebound shy of making it a triple double-double night for the Men in Black.

And in all this, one might ask where was the mercurial Trey Moore? Well for once he didn’t light up the scorers, but seven big assists and a dozen points can hardly be called an off night.

Against a Heat side struggling for their existence off the court, Fab Flournoy sent his men out to establish themselves early, match the away side’s energy and keep them off the rebounding glass. All of this was achieved in a first quarter where only the shooting of Julius Joseph and captain Mike Martin kept Guildford in the game.

But it was never going to be enough, and with Chapman and Smith establishing the outside game and Defoe and Richard cleaning up inside the Eagles took a comfortable 29-17 lead into the second period.

In the run-up to half-time Newcastle didn’t let up, and Chapman netted ten personal in that stretch to help his side to 20-point cushion at 56-36 to sit on in the locker room.

The third quarter was the closest of a one-sided contest but it still went the way of Flournoy’s men as they edged it 21-19 to lead 77-55 going in to the final ten minutes.

In that final stanza Flournoy allowed the likes of Chapman, Moore and Richard to sit down and watch the young guns, including local Geordie boys Aaron Nielsen and Ross Wilson, to bring the side home. They played their part in helping Smith and Defoe to add to their impressive points tally and The Eagles made it a clean sweep of all four quarters, taking it 21-15 to make the final score an emphatic and comprehensive 98-70, resulting in two more BBL Championship points.

Certainly this performance was another impressive one and gave the large Sport Central faithful a great night’s entertainment and pleasure as they were able to watch their favourites confirm the form they had shown in Sheffield five days earlier. Flournoy will not allow his players to get carried away and will no doubt analyse the game thoroughly looking for improvements.

His team, however, have responded to his call and seem ready now to put all the hard work they’ve put in in training out their on the game court where it really matters and the message to the rest of the BBL is that the Eagles are flying high once more.

NEWCASTLE: Joe Chapman 28, Charles Smith 20, Darius Defoe 16.

GUILDFORD: Julius Joseph 23, Mike Martin 18, Thomas Janusauskas 11.