Right time for Eagles to face the favourites
LARRY Austin Jr insists London are the right team at the right time for a Seriös Group Newcastle Eagles roster ready to rip up the form book this weekend.
Marc Steutel’s men are coming to the boil in post-season after brushing aside third-placed Caledonia Gladiators in the playoff quarterfinals. And Austin Jr believes the best is yet to come from a Newcastle side ready to lock horns with champions London twice in three days this weekend.
“We’re a first-year group and it’s taken us some time to work things out at the defensive end,” said the former Cheshire Phoenix star.
“But we’ve been doing this for a season now and you can see how things have developed. Honestly, I think everything’s coming together at the right time for this team.
“Our mentality’s never changed, we’ve never pointed the finger at our team-mates when things haven’t gone to plan and we’ve always stayed true to ourselves as a group. That’s starting to show now and we’re not finished yet.”
Austin Jr was in typically dynamic form last Friday as the men in black made light work of third-placed Caledonia.
And if the guard didn’t have the best night offensively then he covered every inch of the Vertu Motors Arena court with the tenacity and focus that’s made him a firm crowd favourite on Tyneside.
“It’s a great feeling to be through to the semi-finals and going into the London series with back-to-back wins against Gladiators is good for us,” he added.
“If we continue to play defence that’s the key. Getting things right at the defensive end is what we’ve been striving for all season. From there we can play with more freedom and have some fun.
“We’re rested and recovered after Friday’s win and now the focus is on our next opponent.”
That opponent couldn’t be much tougher and London strolled into the semis after sweeping aside eighth-placed Surrey last weekend.
A roster widely regarded as the most talented to play professional hoops in the UK remains odds-on to add the playoff crown to their league title.
But Newcastle do have one win in the bag against the star-studded Lions and Steutel’s men match up well against the capital’s freespending franchise.
“We’re confident ahead of Friday and Sunday,” added Darius Defoe as he prepares to go toe-to-toe with his hometown club.
“You have to be confident in this sport otherwise there’s no point in playing the game!
“If we give our very best then we’re a match for anyone and so London holds no fear.
“We’ve been talking about making the playoff final all year and to do that we need to get past the Lions. We know what we need to do.”
Inconsistency has been the story of the Eagles’ season but convincing back-to-back wins against the Gladiators have helped to change that frustrating narrative.
And Newcastle face London on the back of three wins in four – beating Caledonia and league runnersup Cheshire Phoenix in the last three weeks.
“I’m happy for the guys,” added Defoe. “We’ve been working so hard in practice these last few weeks and so to get the job done last week was incredible.
“I’m happy for my team-mates, for the fans and for Newcastle. It’s a huge boost for all of us that we’re moving on to the semi-finals in great shape.”
Tickets for Friday’s semi-final showdown are available via boxoffice.newcastle-eagles.com