Before this week's encounters a quick recap on last week's game which we narrowly lost (61-59) to Stourport Spartans;
We travelled to Stourport to what turned out to be quite an intense game. This was our first encounter as part of the YBL league, and with extra precautions around Covid procedures, the environment was quite cold. Spartans opened up the game with well organised and attacking basketball. We closed the first half with Lorenzo and Sam scoring 16pts between them and we returned to the benches 34-26 down.

Coming into the second half the Eagles spirit rallied again with strong attacking basketball Jacopo and Sam which started to close the gap. Despite the opposing team pressing we held our nerve both in offence and defence and managed to close the gap to just 2pts with 46 seconds to go. Unfortunately we could not quite convert our opportunities to take the win and Spartans held on.

An excellent performance by the team. Who knows, with a few less fouls we might have beaten them…………………..until next time.

So back to this week's games. On Saturday we faced Worcester Wolves at home and came away with a very decisive win, 100-31.
With a number of players missing this was another spirited performance from the Eagles on Saturday. Some new players joined us for the first time in YBL including Benji, Marley and Tonko who all had a really strong start on the team.

We started fast with 4pts from Jason followed by a 3 from Lorenzo. The team passed well penetrating the Wolves defence regularly with Joanes bringing the ball up and everyone across the team scoring a number of baskets. It was fantastic to see a number of selfless plays that despite open baskets, and being ahead, the team continued to pass the ball around.

Coming back up the court the team played a strong defensive game transitioning well from man 2 man defence to zone holding our opponents at bay. This strong defensive play, particularly from Harvey, opened a number of fast-breaks with more baskets from Jason, Tonko, Sam and Kelechi. It's also worth calling out some very strong rebounding plays from both Oscar and Benji which continued to pile the points on.

As we closed the game 7 players scored more than 10 points each. A great game to watch with fantastic contribution from right across the team.

On Sunday we had another series of OJBDL games. Coach Roberto took the team to Oxford where unfortunately we lost 34-20 to Thames Raptors and 48-10 to Oxford Hoops. Same as last time this was a 15min running clock per half and a great opportunity for our players to get game time experience against a number of teams. The players worked hard with a number of the team who played on Saturday also playing Sunday.

Our next game is the YBL tournament in Birmingham on Sunday 11th July followed by a big return match with Stourport Spartans on Saturday 17th July at home. The team is developing quickly and with such a strong squad starting to form we will be making our team selections based on commitment to training and contribution to the team. We've developed our own team mnemonic which we train and play by FAST;

· Fit - work hard on our fitness

· Attitude - show great attitude to our teammates, coaches & ref's

· Skills - worked hard our skills and use them in games

· Teamwork - lift our teammates up whether we win or lose

Thanks for your ongoing support of the team.