LADY Fate had one last knockout punch to deliver to the Newcastle Eagles as their season ended in dramatic style in Sheffield yesterday afternoon.

Fab Flournoy’s hamstring injury picked up in Friday’s first leg kept him out and his defensive intensity on court was hugely missed.

To compound matters, star guard and the man who did so much coming in late to help Eagles to this position, Reggie Jackson, hobbled out of the game at a crucial point of the third quarter when his side needed him most.

That was the period when Sheffield took full advantage and ground out the hard yards to take them in to an aggregate lead but more importantly the momentum and tide of the tie swung their way. Although Jackson did come back in to the game he was clearly affected by his injury and the game was up for a gallant Eagles side.

Gallant is one word, heart is another and in truth there’s not another team in the league that could have gone so far and almost pull off an astounding feat of making the play-off final after all the trials and tribulations they’ve been through this season.

But recriminations, reflections and contemplation are for another day and with a long summer ahead, Flournoy and his coaching staff will take a good hard look at the season’s events and slowly but surely put the plan together to get Newcastle back to the top of British basketball.

On the day leading by eight points and even going in to the final ten minutes still level Eagles still had a chance but not surprisingly in view of their well documented problems with injuries this season and all the adversity it was perhaps a season that was destined to end in heartache.

The main damage was done by ex-Eagle Olu Babalola who had a sensational game against his old side but Sheffield are a steely systematic side that never know when they are beat. After coming back from 15 points down in the quarter-final against Glasgow, they probably thought eight points was a mere breeze.

It wasn’t. Newcastle made them battle all the way but in the end the play-off comeback kings marched on to the final and left Eagles hopes in tatters.

Newcastle had made the better start and even pushed their overall advantage to over fifteen points deep in to the second quarter. At the half they led the game on the night by four and by twelve overall but a dramatic second half collapse which saw them lose the final 20 minutes 56-32 was their undoing.

You could point to being out-rebounded, not defending the three-point line well enough but perhaps Flournoy and his men just need to doff their caps to a side that wouldn’t let up and in the end just about deserved to go through.

For the Eagles, Jackson didn’t deserve to be on the losing side and his long, long-range shot on the third quarter buzzer will live long in the memory. He was given great support by Drew Lasker and Andre Lockhart but the final analysis will show Newcastle just didn’t have enough to take them that final step.

NEWCASTLE SCORERS: Reggie Jackson 28, Drew Lasker 16, Andre Lockhart 12