Abingdon Eagles

Away Bromsgrove Friday 6th August. An evening 8.15 tip did not feel like an attractive prospect, nevertheless this was the penultimate game of the season, in what had been a reasonable successful YBL. The game turned out to be a right belter!

Eagles had 10 players, which in itself showed how much drive there was to play in our club and given that the home leg was close for 3 quarters we needed everyone. During the warm up it was quickly apparent that the Bears team were stronger and certainly had more size . We started with half court man to man defence to try and pressure the ball.

Bromsgrove started well with their big guy (16) dominating inside and sealing in the low post at every opportunity and punishing us on the boards. A slight adjustment by Joe C to half front him and some weak side help slowed his progress at the end of the quarter. In the second the bench came on for Eagles and Cam, Ben and Harry Millbank in particular scored very efficiently and quickly, running offence with patience. Harassing the back up point guard with some clinical shooting saw the Eagles outscore the Bears by 31 to 13 and start the second half with a 10 point lead (48-38).

During half time, the Bears had another ball handler join them - this guy we had seen at Abingdon before and he was very capable. The second half was tough. Bears started strongly again with height and strength. We needed the work and fight of Joe, Tom, Harry L and Harry S to keep them off the boards and out of the paint as much as possible. After a bit of a word with the Refs they started calling some of the pushing and hands off, which started to get under No 16's skin a bit with him picking up the offensive fouls and by the end of the 3rd quarter Eagles were still up by 6.

The 4th quarter was a nail biter with us struggling to score at times. The ball started to stick a little, a couple of 3's from Sellick and JC helped keep the score ticking over. The Bears kept applying the pressure and about half way through the last period the gap was down to 1 point.

The pressure was high towards the end. Jacob and Sam in particular showed huge strength making pressured free throws after some frankly brutal fouling. Sam shot 10 from 12 at the line and that proved critical with Eagles winning by 3 at the buzzer.

79-76 to Eagles fantastic result.

A fantastic Team performance - everyone scored and everyone fought. In the end it paid off with a great win. Getting home at midnight on that Friday still buzzing meant the trip was absolutely worth while. A huge thanks to Coach Andy and the Refs.

One final game to go against Wolverhampton.