Newcastle Eagles inflicted more pain upon BBL strugglers Edinburgh Rocks on Sunday, departing the Scottish capital with a comprehensive 96-67 victory to stay on course for third place in the Northern Conference. 

It was Donnie Johnson who began the contest at Meadowbank on fire, hitting five of Newcastle's opening seven points in a 22-3 start which left the Rocks stunned and never truly able to recover. 

"We knew Edinburgh were better than their record shows so our emphasis was to come out early and take their heart away early," Ehlers revealed. "We were successful in doing that and that proved the key to the game."

After that it was largely plain sailing, a minor blip when ex-Eagles favourite Chris Webber sparked an 11-2 burst from the hosts in the second quarter proving only a temporary distraction.

Such was the extent of the visitor's strangehold that Rocks player-coach Iain Maclean remained on the bench at half-time rather than venturing to the locker room, admitting that his team's effort was "just diabolical."

Taking a 45-35 cushion into the second half, Ehlers and Johnson ensured that the advantage steadily increased, peaking at the end. 

And Steve Ogunjimi - like Webber, cleared to play after his club lodged a late appeal against his pending suspension - produced another influential performance as Newcastle gave their bench an extended outing, young Scot Ronnie Gordon firing six points on his second outing for the Tyneside outfit. 

Captain Tony Windless top scored for the Eagles with 21 with Ian Whyte adding 20. 

However Maclean had no platitudes to offer, passing a scathing judgement on his team.

 "All we have to do is play hard to give ourselves a chance to be in the game. We never looked like doing that from the word go."

Ted Berry and Webber paced the Scots with 19 each.
 

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