BBL Championship
Newcastle Eagles
114 (35,63,88) (Hyatt 29, Whyte 22, Myers 21)
Chester Jets
119 (31,57,78) (McCord 28, Redd 24, Thomas 23)
Chester Jets came
from behind to defeat Newcastle Eagles 119-114 at the Telewest Arena on
Friday night as Tony Garbelotto's men again proved fallible on their home
court.
Newcastle led by
13 midway through the third period and again by 11 less than two minutes
into the final quarter but fell in the face of Jets pressure as the Cup
victors moved further clear in the Northern Conference.
"I have to pay tribute
to my players for scoring 114 points against a side which concedes an average
of 86," said a disappointed Garbelotto.
"However, I know
it was a game which we looked like we had won and I'm disappointed we didn't
have enough to pull it off. When we were in a commanding position we started
to make soft passes and we were the team which looked tentative."
Jets were minus star
forward James Hamilton, whose ankle injury re-surfaced but former Eagles
target Mike Redd proved an adequate replacement, firing 24 points on his
debut. However some fine shooting from England international Ian Whyte,
who bagged 17 of his 22 total in the first half, helped the Eagles to an
88-78 third quarter lead.
Yet it did not last.
With Newcastle leading 99-90 midway through the fourth period, Jets bagged
a 16-2 run to lead 106-101. A tense finale ensued, with the closest Eagles
could get at 111-115 following a Malcolm Leak three pointer as John Thomas
iced Jets' win from the line.
Eagles' Jeremy Hyatt
was the game's leading scorer with 29 points.
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