Scorchers headed North to Newcastle to face off with the Eagles at the Virtu Motors arena for the second time this season.
Looking to return to Eagles historic winning ways, the home side brought back last season’s high flying MVP candidate Justin Gordan to make his Debut in front of the sold out crowd.
Scorchers travel with 8 as Saiquan Jamison was released mid-week to return home for rehab. Jules Dang-Akodo, Legend Robertin and Martelle McLemore also join the injured list.
As the ball went up the game quickly came to a stop in the opening 30 seconds as Brandon Peel exited the court with a facial bleed, he would return to the court.
Scorchers come out hot as Devin Thomas and Dean Wanliss hit a pair of 3s pushing us out to an 6 – 8 lead.
Scorchers out hustled the eagles on the glass in the first 5 minutes. Lamar Hamrick put in work on both ends of the floor as he chased down the Eagles fast break to pin the ball on the backboard after netting the mid-range pull up.
It was in the first quarter return signing Justin Gordon got the Newcastle fans off their seats taking flight off a behind the back pass from former MVP Rahmon Fletcher to slam one home. Rahmon Fletcher with 4 assists early.
Newcastle finished the quarter knocking down 3 after 3 as they take a 12-point advantage going into the 2nd quarter 27 – 15.
Scorchers quickly make it a 8 point deficit behind a 3 from Devin Thomas and captain Tayo Ogedengbe getting to the foul line.
As Scorchers reduce the deficit to 8 points, Fletcher takes control of the Eagles side and start to exploit the zone defence. With Scorchers unable to rotate quick enough the home side score in the paint to head to the locker room with a comfortable lead.
With a small bench rotation and tired legs you could see the difference in tempo between the two teams. Eagles score 18 fast break points to Scorchers 0.
Dean Wanliss comes out with a quick 5 points to start the second half to get the scorchers going on his way to a season high 16 points. However, the eagles couldn’t seem to miss stretching the lead out to 24 points in the opening minutes.
Tired legs start to kick in as Scorchers 1 pass shot offense leads to leak outs by the Eagles gunning on the away side on the fast break resulting in a 33-point deficit.
Lamar Hamrick sparks some energy into the team with a cut to the basket and flushing one home on Brandon Peel. This was followed by a 3 from Raftopoulos.
Stepping up into his starting roll Wanliss hustled on the offensive boards and cleaned up as he continues to bring energy and effort to finish the game with pride.
It was clear that towards the end of this quarter the game was wrapped up as Newcastle score on every trip up the court finishing the quarter with a 89 – 56 lead.
With the game out of reach Newcastle subs on their young talents to close out the game as scorchers suffer a 114 – 72 loss.
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