BBL Fog on Tyne cloud Eagles woes
Lee Ridley
Newcastle Eagles slumped to their second defeat within a gruelling 24 hour period when Manchester Giants came to the Newcastle Telewest Arena and comfortably won 70-82.
After returning from an away defeat at the hands of Thames Valley in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Eagles were back in action on their home court on Sunday afternoon.
However, whatever effect that had on the team did not show in the first two quarters of the game as Newcastle matched the Giants like for like.
In a nip and tuck start, Tony Dorsey scored the first six of Manchester's points only for the Eagles to reply with baskets of their own. Dorsey continued to fire them in for the Giants and they eventually started to build up a lead when they went on a 0-6 run to go 15-21 ahead. However, Newcastle ended the first quarter in good form and were only 19-21 behind going into the second.
The second stanza was much the same as the Eagles gave as good as they got. In fact, the Tynesiders were in front by five at 32-27 halfway through, forcing Manchester Coach, Nick Nurse, to call a time-out. Even then, Newcastle remained focussed and were only behind by one at the break, the score being 37-38.
It wasn't until the third period when the effects of the bus journey less than 12 hours earlier finally got to Craig Lynch's men. A 3-10 run from the Giants saw them take their biggest lead of the game so far at 40-48 and the Eagles were to struggle from then on. Especially as both Roy Hairston and Dorsey were in good shooting form for Manchester, the pair wnding on 24 and 30 points respectively.
Despite the efforts of Newcastle's Ralph Blalock to get something out of the encounter, the American hitting a game-high 32 points, the Giants had an answer for everything that was thrown at them and it was only a matter of time until victory was theirs.
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