Taking the wins from a ENBL debut heartbreak

I tweeted (or should that be X’d?) before the game that win or lose, we should all be very proud of the achievements of the Seriös Group Newcastle Eagles and celebrate a magnificent achievement. Unfortunately, I probably didn’t quite feel that way at the final buzzer.

My feelings as Jonathan Davis sank the buzzer-beater that condemned the Eagles to a 94-92 opening European North Basketball League defeat were mixed: disappointment and a bit of disbelief.

Disappointment that we lost and disbelief that with 13 minutes and 25 seconds of the game to go we lead by 19 points and somehow failed to close the game out.

But back to my tweet first. I have been involved with Newcastle Eagles now for 21 years I believe. I’ve had many various guises and duties within the Club, all on a voluntary basis. Many things have driven me on and made me proud to be an Eagle. Not least of which is the pride and passion that Sam and Paul Blake put into driving the Franchise to be the best it can be, both as a professional sporting entity and a cornerstone of the Newcastle community.

We also had three lofty ambitions. Actually, we probably had more but let’s just, for now, look at the three I’ve picked out. Make the Eagles a household name and brand in British basketball by achieving National success, have our own venue and compete in a meaningful, competitive, European competition.

After Wednesday night, it’s now tick, tick and tick. So, perhaps the result needs to be taken into context against achieving goals, dreams and ambitions.

But let’s consider the game and some of the stats before I get to a further disappointment of VAR standards. Many, or at least a lot, didn’t give us a lot of chance as we opened our European campaign against the might of BC Šiauliai of Lithuania, but boy did we ever give them a game.

Superb on offence and very good on defence, until the final quarter we went toe-to-toe against a team steeped in European experience. We won virtually every category apart from the one that counts the most, the final score.

Marc Steutel’s team was ahead for over 30 minutes. We took the lead for the first time with 5:34 to go in the first, eventually leading after the opening ten minutes. We were never really down after that until 0.1 seconds to go!

We won the battle of the rebounds (31-35) especially on the offensive end (6-19). Our defence was top level at times (steals 5-16, turnovers 23-15) but it wasn`t enough as that last shot heartache sank in.

JJ was immense, Tahj was superb in the first half, although Šiauliai did slow him down in the second. JWH and Malcolm were solid. Devin continues to improve and there was always Rickey and Larry to support and lend a hand.

Also wasn’t it fantastic to see #13 “Double-D” Darius Defoe get a chance to play for his adopted Geordie side in Europe after 20 seasons as an Eagle. I got quite emotional when he stepped on to the court when you think of what he’s done for the franchise.

And then, the recent announcement from The ENBL: I quote.

“Evaluating the last Newcastle offense in the game Šiauliai vs Newcastle, which started with 33 seconds left and continued until the end of the 4th quarter, we conclude that the referees incorrectly called the 3-second violation for Newcastle no. 22, who tried to leave the restricted area.”

So, I’m off to consult with Jurgen Klopp and LiVARpool to see if perhaps we can get the last play replayed or perhaps even the whole game.

However, in all seriousness, taking all things into consideration the feeling of pride came back. We can compete at this level and should be very excited for the remaining six games in the ENBL.