Basketball
Eagles feel the Heat
22 September 2007
The Poujoulat Heat Guildford have started the 2007/08 BBL Championship season where they finished the last one, atop the BBL Championship table, after a massive 83-90 victory on the road at the Newcastle Eagles.
Danny Gilbert led the scoring with 22 points, supported by 12 from former Eagle Tony Dorsey and the same from Dean Williams. The Eagles' new captain, Andrew Bridge, led them with 17 points.
The teams exchanged scores in the first period as the home side were 22-21 up after ten minutes. The Eagles opened the second with two baskets before the Heat made 5 consecutive points to keep the teams knotted at 26. With 4:00 left in the half the Eagles rattled off 8 in a row to lead 34-29 but a strong finish from the visitors saw the game tied again at 39 going into the locker rooms at the half.
The Eagles twice had double-digit leads in the third stanza. They opened with the first 10 points to go up 49-39 until that run was snapped by a James Jones triple. The Heat got back into it with another 8-0 burst to make the score 57-55, but the Eagles responded soon afterwards with 6 of their own to stretch the lead back out to 65-55.
Guildford had two crucial runs in the decisive stanza: the first was a 9-2 burst that saw them lead for the first time since the second quarter at 67-68. Then with two minutes remaining Danny Gilbert fired 6 points of a 7-0 surge that settled the game as they went up 74-85 and weren't threatened again.
Quarterscores:-22-21, 39-39, 65-59, 83-90
Overtime periods:-
Final result:- 83-90
Officials:- Ian Pollard, Paul Walton, Steve Ferris
Top Scorers:
Eagles: Bridge 17, Stewart 13, Flournoy 11
Heat: Gilbert 22, Dorsey 12, Williams 12
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