Eagles try to put cup defeat behind them

NEWCASTLE Eagles return to Northumbria University’s Sport Central this evening looking to continue their 100% BBL Championship record and get back to winning ways after last week’s surprise BBL Cup defeat at the hands of Cheshire Phoenix.

One of the biggest factors in that defeat – with respect to the rest of the team – was the injury to on-court general Saah Nimley, the diminutive point guard unable to assist his team last Friday night.

The good news is that Nimley will be back this evening to help shape and guide his side as they look to continue their title challenge.

The influential guard reflected on last week’s defeat and looked forward to tonight’s Sport Central clash with Surrey Scorchers.

“I’m fine now,” Nimley insisted, “I’ve been back in training all week and it feels alright so I’m ready to go for sure tonight.”

Nimley had a perfect view from the bench as last week’s game unfolded right in front of him.

“It was tough to watch and not to be able to be out there and help out my team-mates,” he added.

“I still thought that we were in a position to win the game and in the end, we were only a couple of plays away from being in the semi-finals.

“You can never get too comfortable especially with the way our past couple of games had been, but I did think we’d play that one out. But when a couple of unfortunate things happened you kind of got a sense that something bad was maybe about to happen.

“It’s gone now though, we have to concentrate on Surrey tonight; that preparation started as soon as we recovered from last Friday.”

Newcastle play Surrey tonight and then face the same opposition in the BBL Trophy next month, also on home soil, but Nimley is only focused on one thing.

He insisted: “It’s important that we get the win tonight. It’s another big one because of last week and we know it’s going to be a tough test. It’ll be good to get a look at them in the league first.

“But really, we must think about tonight, not about the trophy, it’s about taking it one game at a time and taking care of business. The guys came back to training still a little disappointed about Friday.

“It’s basketball. I want to say it was one game but it was an important game but what can you do? All we could do is get back to work and get ready to continue on with winning in the league and that’s what we’re going to do.”