Eagles prevail over Phoenix in triple OT
THE Newcastle Eagles edged to victory at Cheshire Phoenix in a triple-overtime thriller that will go down as an instant BBL Championship classic.
Only after 55 minutes of action could the two sides be separated at the end of a rollercoaster game in which a dozen players reached double digits for points.
The result means Newcastle are now 4-2 in the BBL Championship and can take real confidence in Friday’s home game with Bristol Flyers.
It is hard to imagine a more stunning game than Friday night’s 12-point win over title favourites London Lions but the Eagles managed to ramp up the drama to a whole new level.
Cheshire and Newcastle were tied 81-81 at the end of regulation time, with Corey Johnson missing a free-throw to win the game there and then.
Instead, the two sides played another five minutes but both teams were level at 91 apiece, with Johnson’s three-pointer sending the game into another period of overtime.
Yet more drama swiftly ensued as this time Wesley Person Jr thought he had won the game for the Eagles with four seconds left scoring with a triple from the corner to put his side up by two.
However, Teddy Okereafor – GB Basketball’s hero in their recent win over Greece at the Vertu Motors Arena – showed all his experience and composure to net and take the game to a third additional period at 99-99.
Finally, with tiredness taking a toll on both teams, the Eagles prevailed.
Newcastle finally found the decisive offensive plays they needed and coupled them with crucial defensive stops.
It was American Duke Shelton that scored four in a row inside the last minute to give the Eagles a lead they would not relinquish.
When the Phoenix missed again, they had no option but to send Rahmon Fletcher to the line with the hope he would miss. The icecool Newcastle skipper did not and his two final free-throws made it a five-point game that Cheshire could only cut to three as the final buzzer sounded.
It completed an amazing double-winning weekend for head coach Ian MacLeod’s men. Both he and Fletcher had talked about needing a validation win last night to back-up Friday’s superb win.
It is highly doubtful that either would have thought that validation would have come in such an amazingly dramatic fashion. That it did is testament to an Eagles roster that somehow dredged up every extra ounce of effort needed to finally get the job done.
Credit though to Cheshire who were never out of the game and pushed Newcastle every step of the way, led for large parts of the game and at one time in the third period by double digits.
Newcastle never went away, though, and soon turned around a game that swung like a pendulum.
Shelton added 16 rebounds to his team-high points tally of 22, while the remarkable Fletcher dished out another 13 assists – just days after supplying 17 against London – and somehow also found the energy to play over 51 minutes.
Person Jr, Johnson, Brandon Peel and Darius Defoe were the other players to get into double figures for the Eagles but it was certainly a team effort to get over the line in dramatic fashion.