BRITISH Basketball’s premier franchise made history last night despite defeat in Holland.
Newcastle Eagles made their first foray into European competition, lining up in an international tournament at the Landstede Topsporthal in Zwolle, which is hosting the Basketball Days event, featuring six teams from five different continents.
Newcastle’s first opponents were Barsy Atyrau of Kazakhstan, in the first encounter between clubs from the two countries.
Barsy provided formidable opposition, with four members of their team standing taller than Eagles’ tallest player, Andy Thomson, who measures 6’10’’.
Unfortunately, despite Thomson’s considerable presence and scoring power, along with evergreen Charles Smith and Darius Defoe’s support, the Eagles slipped to a defeat.
This means they have to beat their second opponents, the Nigerian national team, in tomorrow night’s showdown by eight points to qualify for the semi-finals.
The Eagles had travelled on an early flight to make the afternoon tip-off in Holland and faced opponents who had played 24 hours earlier and lost by 11 to the Nigerians.
Add in the ten-day break since Fab Flournoy’s men had last played, and perhaps this was not an unexpected defeat. The Kazakhstan side played with an intensity throughout the full 40 minutes the Eagles often matched – but ultimately not enough in this great European adventure.
Newcastle, though, started strongly and, thanks to a Defoe bucket and triples from Joe Chapman and Smith, they were 8-0 up in the blink of an eye.
The Asians fought back and for much of the first quarter the game was even, with the Eagles just holding sway.
Newcastle were even able to play their full bench inside the first ten minutes, giving valuable court time to Lamar Morrison, Ross Wilson and Joel Madourie.
Although the Eagles took the first quarter 26-22, in the second Barsy showed their inside strength and dead-eye outside shooting and took the second period by 25-17 to lead 47-43 at the break with Ukrainian point guard Pavlo Tsopych beginning to dictate play.
In the second half, Tsopych continued to run the game, finding big forwards Sergei Sa butsky, a fellow Ukrainian, and Kazakhstan national Mikhail Yevstigneev inside as the Eagles found the going tough and were suddenly behind 62 - 52.
However, whatever the standard of the competition and the game, Fab Flournoy demands a lot from his players and they responded to his urgings to produce an 18 -4 run which gave them a 70-66 lead going into the final ten minutes.
The Eagles had been boosted by the return to the court of Paul Gause following his recent injury.
However, he still has a way to go to get back into game shape and sharpness and when he fouled out, and Flournoy was forced to limp out of the action with a groin strain, Barsy took advantage. They turned the screw on Newcastle, who were now in foul trouble, and their superior fitness – added to the Eagles’ rustiness – enabled them to turn the game around.
Despite the best efforts of Thomson and Smith, Barsy triumphed.
NEWCASTLE: Andy Thomson 24, Charles Smith 21, Darius Defoe 13
BARSY: Pavlo Tsopych 24, Sergei Sabutsky 20, Mikhail Yevstigneev 16
