Long shines as Newcastle Eagles rue missing key-players against London Lions
A season high 24-points from Cole Long wasn’t enough as the Newcastle Eagles slumped to defeat 79-68 in the capital against the London Lions.
The Eagles who continue a lacklustre season playing on the road missed their star performer and Molten Player of the Month Mike Okauru as they lacked no other scoring outlet apart from Long.
The Canadian, enjoyed a fantastic offensive performance being given the license to shoot as he got hot for Newcastle to keep the score line close even though they were outplayed in every element of the game.
League leading Lions came out the box firing away having a 11-0 lead after two-minutes and 35 seconds before Point Guard Trey Pulliam got the ball rolling for Newcastle.
Newcastle only tailed a measly 12-points in the 1st quarter not tying their season low of 11 which was coincidently against London in their victory back in January.
London, continued to turn up the pressure punishing the Eagles from the three-point line as they sank six threes in the first-half with the travelling Tyne-siders only making one in the first-half.
Defensively the Eagles would improve in the 3rd quarter as they outscored the Lions but their inefficient offensive would mean the 18-point gap at half-time would only be taken down to 16 as the 3rd came to an end.
A lack of depth hurt Newcastle as their thread-bare bench of only just four players was not able to stifle the Lions as they had a lot more to choose from.
The centre position is one of worry for Eagles fans as both Darius Defoe and Will Neighbour combined for 0-points and Defoe grabbing three rebounds in 25 minutes of play between them. Whereas, London’s big man Ovio Soko got eight-points and nine rebounds himself in 18 minutes of action.
Showing a massive Malcolm Delpeche shaped hole at the Centre position for Newcastle with his long-term injury going to be a massive headache for Coach Steutel
Newcastle finally got their offense going in the 4th quarter as they racked up 25-points with Seneca Knight making 6 of his 13-points and Long making 10-points of his 24.
However, it was not enough as the damage had been done with the Eagles falling to 10-10 on the season.
