NEWCASTLE Eagles' coach Fab Flournoy was left feeling "very excited" after another pulsating win on the road for his side, this time at Worthing Thunder on Saturday night.
“Right now I’m excited, very excited and it takes a lot to get me excited,” the player-coach admitted in the locker room after his side had completely annihilated Thunder on their own patch.
The Eagles completed a fabulous double-winning weekend on the road in the deep south after Friday’s tough win at Milton Keynes.
Against Thunder, the Eagles dominated from start to finish at both ends of the court as they turned smart, positional, stifling defence into fast-flowing transitional offence as easy as turning on a tap.
They were irresistible for the full 40 minutes and rewarded those fans that had made the long journey with a dazzling and entertaining performance.
After Worthing had netted an early lead, Newcastle hit back with a 7–0 run and were never behind again as they gradually increased the tempo and rhythm.
Led by the mercurial Trey Moorem, running the side superbly at present, they produced another all-round effort.
Joe Chapman lit up the scorer’s chart for the second night running in scoring 27, while skipper Andrew Bridge showed a welcome return to form with his thoroughly-deserved 20 points.
Charles Smith was once again solid and there was a memorable return to his old stamping ground for forward Kadiri Richard, whose 12 points included several highlight dunks showing just why he was crowned BBL Slam-Dunk Champion last week.
Richard also pulled down 14 rebounds to record a double-double, a feat Moore just missed out on with 13 points and an impressive nine assists.
The Eagles have now won ten in a row in the league after a 1-3 start to the defence of their BBL Championship, and that superb run has propelled them in to joint second-place in the title race.
Saturday’s win was set-up by a great first quarter which saw them lead by 27–14 and although the second period was tighter, they went into the locker room 46–32 ahead.
A 34–22 third period virtually confirmed the victory and a brilliant last stanza put the seal on it.
Even when Flournoy went deep in to his bench the youngsters responded and excellent cameos from Aaron Neilson and Andre Lockhart only widened the gap to an emphatic and impressive final 45-point margin.
Eagles face the tough high-flying Mersey Tigers home and away in the next five days in the two-legged BBL Trophy semi-final.
Flournoy and his players have revenge on their mind having lost their BBL Cup semi-final to the same opposition. On this form and in this mood it would be a brave man that bet against Newcastle revenging that loss this week.
WORTHING : Pepe Zafirov 16, Shaun Durant 12, Mansour Mybe 12
NEWCASTLE : Joe Chapman 27, Andrew Bridge 20, Charles Smith 15
