Manchester Basketball Report: Eagles Suffer Another Defeat

Newcastle Eagles are still searching for their first championship win in 2026 after a narrow loss in Manchester yesterday afternoon. It meant for the second weekend in a row the Eagles went winless in a double header weekend. This time they were just on the wrong side of two very close games. But four straight defeats in the SLB leaves them struggling in the standings as their league record of six wins and 12 defeats leaves them in 8th place in the table. Worrying times for Head Coach Marc Steutel and his team as they need to find a way to turn these small margins in their favour. It was another game, similar to the Bristol game at home on Friday, where the Eagles found themselves trailing for virtually the whole game but very nearly mounted a great comeback that would have taken them to victory. They had to battle adversity with starting point guard Terrell Burden getting into foul trouble early and having to sit out the majority of the game. When he came back in the final quarter he picked up his fifth foul and had to leave the game for the final time. Manny Kanwei had started the game in final style but a reoccurrence of a recent injury forced him out of the game early in the second period never to return. Another blow although veteran Darius Defoe did pick up some of the slack in his place. Indeed the Eagles bench really kept them in the game alongside their starters. They contributed 51 of Eagles 98 total points with Gus Okafor netting 18 points and Mitch Clarke 15 of those to lead the Newcastle scoring. The Eagles only led once in the whole game. Kanwei hitting a triple to put them 5-4 up early on and scoring all 7 of his points in Newcastle’s first 9 as the game was tight early on and for most of the first quarter. Manchester a couple of times getting up to 6-points ahead before Defoe and Okafor closed out the first period with four points to make it 32-30 after one. The second period was perhaps the crucial one and one where Manchester got some control. They managed 26 points and restricted Eagles to only 15 to take a healthy 13-point advantage into the half-time locker rooms. Eagles once again looking for answers to the questions set. As the third started they looked as if they may have found them. After Manchester went up early in the second half by 15-points, Newcastle dug in deep. They were shooting well from 3-point range and continued to chip away getting all the way back to within 7-points at one stage. But the home side rallied again and produced another burst that took them to another 15-point lead. Ray’Sean Taylor though stepped up hitting a triple and then 3 free-throws to reduce the gap to nine going into the final period. Eagles continued to fight and pull back throughout that last ten minutes as they got closer and closer until with 1:43 to go Cole Long hit Newcastle’s 16th triple from 32 attempts and it was a one-point ball game. However as time ticked down Newcastle had to send Manchester to the free-throw line to try and stop the clock and the home side held their nerve to sink the shots they needed to hold on for a vital win.