Saturday night brought a terrific victory for Newcastle. But equally, it was a hideous loss for Birmingham.

The Eagles swooped to dissect the still so-inconsistent Bullets apart on Saturday night, rallying from 15 points down to defeat the Midlands outfit 107-112 in overtime at Aston Villa, a result which will surely leave losing coach Lance Randall searching for answers on his team's resilience.

It had all looked so rosey for the hosts who had come back from an early Newcastle lead after the first quarter to steal the advantage at 54-52 at half-time. With Brant Bailey scoring at rapid pace - 18 of his 29 total arriving before that point - matters got even better for his side when Virgel Cobbin rattled in consecutive three pointers to put Birmingham up 71-56 with 5:06 left in the third quarter.

However the trademark of Newcastle under Tony Garboletto has been their competitive streak and, spurred by Donnie Johnson and Brian Ehlers - the eventual game-high scorer with 35 - the Tyneside outfit stormed back, closing to 78-73 at the outset of the fourth stanza before edging in front on a Johnson trey.

Bullets held the lead in the final minute on Cobbin's seventh score from outside the arc but TJ Walker levelled at 97-97 to force an extra period.

Six quick points from Yorick Williams gave his side the advantage but a 0-9 burst, shared between Ehlers and Ian Whyte, gave Newcastle a lead which not even an additional pair of three-pointers from Cobbin - who ended 9/14 from that range - could spare Birmingham ultimate heartache.
 
 

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