Friday 20 November 2015 Newcastle Eagles 95-88 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves fought valiantly before becoming Newcastle Eagles’ latest victim as the North East outfit stacked up their eleventh victory, 95-88, in their unbeaten start to this season’s British Basketball League.

Although there were several spells where it looked like Newcastle may pull away from their visitors, they were hauled back on each occasion, with Worcester trailing by just three points as the contest entered its final minute.

The night saw another outstanding contribution from Wolves’ centre Perris Blackwell who accumulated 31 points, in addition to grabbing ten rebounds as he dueled with his opposite number and Eagles’ top-scorer with 20 points, Darius Defoe.

Ben Eaves and Javier Mugica both sank three-pointers in a bright first quarter that ended tied at 24-24. Ominously, Newcastle’s ageless forward Charles Smith took to the court towards the close of the period to open his scoring account.

Sure enough Smith was soon on target from distance to edge some daylight between the teams as the second period began. One-time Worcester man Stuart Thomson made a shot and a bonus free-throw to move the score to 34-28. When Thomson dunked the ball home, from a Smith assist, the advantage had widened to 42-32. However, Mugica reached his hat-trick of triples to help drag the deficit back to 49-46 by half-time.

There was more back-and-forth after the interval as Defoe and Blackwell took turns to score inside. Wolves’ guards Jay Couisnard and Josh Cameron got their first successes from the field during a third quarter that remained poised at 71-68 in favour of the hosts.

Four points from Smith pushed Eagles out to 77-70, before Cameron responded with a similar tally. At 89-83, and just a minute and a half remaining, Coach Paul James called a time-out. From the re-start Couisnard nailed a three to briefly give hope to his side but in the last seconds of the contest Newcastle displayed the composure which has earnt them their impeccable record this year.

The evening’s scoresheet showed twin 13-point inputs from Mugica and from Ashton Khan, with Couisnard chipping in with eleven points. Chief-support for Defoe was Smith on 19 points.

Wolves will look to get back to winning ways this Sunday afternoon, (tip-off 3pm), when they host Plymouth Raiders at the University of Worcester Arena.