Fri 9th Mar: London United lose on the road to Newcastle Eagles..

Friday 9th March, 2007

BBL CHAMPIONSHIP

Newcastle Eagles 113-96 London United  

QUARTERSCORES:

27-18, 58-32, 88-61, 113-96

GAME TOP SCORERS:

London United: Tarick Johnson (22), LaTaryl Williams (17), Marlin Capers (13), Bryant Feggins (13), Junior Williams (12),

Farid Haif (10), Marcus Knight (7)

 Newcastle Eagles: Shawan Robinson (23), Jeremy Hyatt (22), Brian McCotter (12), Darius Defoe (12), Andrew Bridge (10),

Tony Dorsey (10), Olu Babalola (9), Tom Sherlock (9), Fab Flournoy (6)

London United felt the back-lash from Newcastle Eagles' shock BBL Trophy Final defeat to Plymouth Raiders as the Tyne-siders registered a 17pt win at the Metro Arena last Friday night.

Eagle's Jeremy Hyatt (discarded against Plymouth) came out with a point to prove and hit 9pts in the opening quarter supported by player/coach Flournoy and Robinson as Newcastle stretched to a 27/18 lead. Bryant Feggins was United's most potent weapon hitting 7pts from inside. Meanwhile, Eagles had obviously targeted the scoring threats of Tarick Johnson and Marcus Knight and proceeded to lock both up with stifling defence.

London recovered and made an excellent start to the second stanza. Farid Haif hit 4pts from the line either side of the break to trigger a 9/2 tear to bring United within 5pts of Eagles thanks to more points from Feggins and a trey from LaTaryl Williams. But having got back into contention, things went seriously wrong as Newcastle closed the half with a 24/4 rip. Only Haif and Capers could add to the United total. Meanwhile, despite burning their remaining time-outs and hitting the United players with some harsh words about the quality of their defencive play, coaches Tony Garbelotto and Sam Stiller's strategies were not executed as Darius Defoe, Hyatt, Tom Sherlock and Flournoy ran riot in transition establishing a 58/32 lead at the half.

More dressing-room fireworks from Coach Garbelotto seemed to finally have some effect as United maintained parity with Eagles throughout the 3rd quarter. Shawan Robinson proved to be London's main tormentor with 14pts. Meanwhile, Tarick Johnson and Marcus Knight managed to find scoring form whilst Junior Williams ended the quarter with a personal 9pt rip.

With a 27pt cushion, Newcastle understandably relaxed in the final period. However this combined with some excellent United pressure defence saw London start to make real inroads. A 7pt tear from the start brought the arrears within 20pts. However, Eagles' outside shooting form never allowed United to seriously threaten as Bryan McCotter came off the bench to hit 9pts from beyond the arc whilst Olu Babalola maintained an inside presence. Newcastle ran out winners 113/96.

Once again, London United were on the end of a barrage of long-range shooting as Eagles hit a staggering 48pts in 3's with Robinson, Hyatt and McCotter the main threats. Despite being out-sized, United dominated the rebounding as Marlin Capers and Farid Haif and LaTaryl Williams pulled down a total of 30 boards. Tarick Johnson once again top scored for United, the vast majority of his 22pts coming in the second half. Infact, other than 7pts from Marcus Knight, all United players made double figure points contributions including 12 from Bryant Feggins. For much of the first half, Feggins proved United's only real scoring threat in only his second match back after a long lay-off with a knee injury.

Meanwhile, with Worcester now mathematically unable to qualify for the play-offs and Chester Jets picking up a win over Milton Keynes and now only one game back, the fight for the final post-season spot is now a 3 horse race between Leicester, United and Jets. This makes United's home match against Leicester this coming Sunday at SPACe their biggest match of the season so far.

Chris Morris 12/3/07

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