Eagles on a roll as killer combo Rocks Glasgow
NEWCASTLE EAGLES...98 GLASGOW ROCKS .......... 78
DOUBLE-DOUBLES for Rahmon Fletcher and Evan Maxwell paced a third win on the bounce for the men in black as Newcastle Eagles stayed second in the BBL Championship.
Yet a 20-point victory against basement side Glasgow Rocks didnot tell the full story as the combative visitors pushed Ian MacLeod’s men all the way in a scrappy clash.
Newcastle need to do better at Surrey tomorrow if the Eagles are to avenge last month’s four-point loss.
Fletcher added 11 assists to his 22 points on a night when Maxwell bagged 16 points and 11 boards.
Yet make no mistake – this was far from perfect from a Newcastle team that often flattered to deceive before an impressively strong finish.
Rocks announced the April 1 signing of High School Musical’s Troy Bolton prior to tip-off.
Yet in a week when the Scots lost their two top scorers, itis unlikely Glasgow fans saw the funny side.
Ronald Delph and Christian Keeling quit the BBL earlier this week following their side’s humiliating 16-point defeat at Surrey Scorchers.
In truth, the troubled Rocks could have included Bolton, Michael J Fox’s Teen Wolf and the entire cast of Space Jam and still turned up on Tyneside as massive underdogs.
Standing between Murray’s men and a rare league victory was a fullstrength Newcastle team which had destroyed star-studded London Lions seven days earlier.
By contrast, Glasgow named just eight players after David Mpondo was ruled out prior to tip-off.
With big-screen star Bolton conspicuous by his absence, this looked like the ultimate mismatch in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
It seemed nobody told a depleted Rocks roster that Newcastle were the red-hot favourites expected to win at a canter.
Player-coach Gareth Murray clearly missed the memo and his players ignored the pressure.
The short-handed visitors deserved immense credit as they came out firing on all cylinders against an Eagles side which looked a shadow of last week’s Lion-tamers. It was Murray’s tenacious four-point play in the closing stages of the first quarter which tied the scores at 19 apiece.
The 36-year-old was leading his team with warrior-like determination against nervy Newcastle.
Things got considerably worse for the out-of-sorts hosts seven minutes into the second period as Marc Kwedi hit back-to-back triples to fire his team 34-33 ahead.
Newcastle simply were not at the races but after MacLeod called a time-out, an 11-0 tear to close the half opened up a 42-34 Eagles lead.
With that to build on, the men in black were able to to step things up in the final 20 minutes.
Despite failing to convert nine of his 12 field-goal attempts, skipper Fletcher was still on the brink of a first-half double-double.
The two-time BBL MVP might have struggled to find his range early on but he had no trouble finding his team-mates – eight assists keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
It was Fletcher’s buzzer-beating dish to Cortez Edwards, after the backcourt duo raced coast to coast exchanging intuitive passes, that suggested the best was yet to come.
For much of the third period Newcastle struggled to get out of second gear but another strong finish to the quarter kept the Rocks at bay.
Five slick passes set up the offensive play of the night as Darius Defoe put the Eagles 68-56 ahead.
It was that man Fletcher who went for the jugular in the final minute of the quarter – two trademark drives to the basket setting the seal on an impressive 12-2 tear.
Newcastle led by 15 with 10 minutes on the clock and this time there was no comeback from the tenacious but tiring Scots.