Eagles Weekly Wrap - 2024-09-25

WE ARE BACK! – CHECK OUT THE SCORES AND COACHES’ COMMENTS ON THE TEAM’S PERFORMANCES ON THE FIRST PROPER WEEKS BACK AS TEAM’S PLAY IN PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES + NATIONAL CUP GAMES, RESPECTIVELY.

Sunday 8th September

York Eagles @ Leeds LDM

U14 Girls Pre-Season Friendly

Result: 41-36 (WIN)

Player of the Game:

Yue Fay Ng – 11pts/4rebs/3stls

Notable Performances:

Grace Roberts – 22pts/2rebs

Coach Ghada Khattab commented on the U14 Girls performance:

“The U14 Girls played their first friendly of the season at LDM, which was also their first time back together since the summer holidays. This is our newest team with a wide range of ages (8-13) and abilities, but what binds them together is their enthusiasm and love for the game. Despite a slightly rusty shooting and movement on offence, their defence was fierce, and their passing was more mature. This was a close game with the lead changing hands a couple of times, making for exciting viewing before the Eagles sealed the win. Everyone did incredibly well, with Yue Fay Ng shining with her steals, fast breaks and drives, and Grace Roberts securing those important points. Thank you to Ava Lad + Alex Dunlop Gibson for supporting the team too.”

York Eagles @ Leeds LDM

U16 Girls Pre-Season Friendly

Result: 79-13 (WIN)

Player of the Game:

Maya Foulkes – 20pts/11asts

Notable Performances:

Amelie Hetherton – 14pts/3rebs/2asts

Danika Croft – 12pts/4asts/4stls

Grace Roberts – 12pts/2asts

Coach Ghada Khattab commented on the U16 Girls performance:

“The U16 Girls played their first friendly of the season at LDM. Eagles had the advantage with more NL experience under their belt, but they took nothing for granted and employed tight defence along with textbook offence. Good ball circulation, spacing and speed were the order of the day, with some great team plays thrown in. LDM showed great team spirit and potential. Thank you for hosting us and to Coach Charlotte for everything she does for Girls Basketball at LDM."

Saturday 14th September

York Eagles @ Trafford Magic

U18 Men Pre-Season Friendly

Result: 69-50 (WIN)

Player of the Game:

Korbin Evans 

Sunday 15th September

York Eagles @ Sheffield Sharks Blue

U18 Men Pre-Season Friendly

Result: 63-79 (LOSS)

Player of the Game:

Aleks Meszek

Coach Paul Pickering commented on both U18 pre-season friendlies and their performances:

“It was a weekend of 2 halves as the U18s squad, complemented with some of our U16s travelled to Manchester and Sheffield respectively. We came away with a hard fought 19pt victory against a strong Trafford Magic team with a captain’s performance from K. Evans as well as ankle wrecking trickery from our new starting point guard T. Greening. Our defence was locked in and hustled to make up for any rust that was being shaken off. 

Sunday was a different story, and the physicality and strength advantage of our opponents who were all in their 2nd year of 18s action was just too much. With more of the bench filled, we struggled with rhythm and coordination of player roles and our defence did not get going. Despite this A. Meszek earned a well-deserved MVP performance.

With us staring down the barrel of a tie with Bradford in the cup next week, we need 2 good training sessions to work on offence rotation and ball movement. 

Saturday 21st September

York Eagles @ Grimsby Phoenix

U14 Pre-Season Friendly

Result: 50-50 (TIE)

Player of the game:

Conor Camplin – 11pts/10rebs/3blks

Notable performances:

James Clayton – 10pts/13rebs

Henderson Ho – 8pts/4rebs

Coach Tyler Paton-Pottage commented on the U14s Performance:

“Albeit the result ending in a tie, it was the main purpose of the game, we wanted to focus on our performance and see what we needed to work on before our season opener next weekend. First half, we scored well, hitting shots from beyond the arc, but moved the ball well and create good scoring opportunities with our ball movement and excellent footwork around the basket. We also saw glimpses of what our full court press can do, with us slowing down Grimsby and then forcing them into shots they did not want to take. Needs to be quicker but will come sooner rather than later. A few things that we will work on in training; Shooting, as that really let us down in the 2nd half, communication and holding ourselves accountable on defensive rotations, as well as offensive sets as we are still learning. 

Sunday 22nd September

York Eagles @ Bradford Dragons

U18 Men SureShot National Cup

Result: 83-43 (WIN)

Player of the Game:

Emilis Vildziunas – 11pts/10rebs/7asts

Notable Performances:

Travis Greening – 16pts

Lukai Ostrowski – 14pts/5rebs

Korbin Evans – 6pts/10rebs/3asts

Coach Paul Pickering commented on the U18s Performance in the cup:

“Cup fever took us to an opening weekend fixture against Bradford, who are in our league this season. With our pre-match prep we looked hungry and Locke din but that was not the case after we were on the receiving end of some early consistent 3-point shooting from their number 5 despite our active man defence. A switch to box and 1 soon settled this and we started to gain control late on the first quarter and kept this level of discipline and intensity for the rest of the game.

Defensively, L. Karmazyn and L. Ostrowski were excellent, complemented by much better discipline and no foul trouble allowed us to play aggressive defence throughout. Our press and punch were unbeatable and resulted in many turnovers.

Offensively, we struggled at the start with several of our shooters not firing on the day but some impressive big man action from all 4 bigs was too much to handle for Bradford and S. Walker-Taylor was the catalyst that meant the others had space on the floor. Early in the 3rd, T. Greening, our starting PG finally clicked into gear and finished with a game high 16pts with his usual trickery from top of the key. An MVP performance from E. Vildziunas which included 2 no-look dishes to L. Ostrowski for an open finish was ultimately too much for Bradford who kept battling to the end but without a response."

Next weekend sees us head to newcomers Scarborough for our first league encounter and squad choice will certainly be challenging after such an impressive performance and great character shown this weekend.

York Eagles @ Newcastle Eagles

U16 Girls SureShot National Cup

Result: 51-81 (LOSS)

Player of the Game:

Zofia Parsons – 10pts/11rebs/5stls

Notable Performances:

Danika Croft – 17pts/2asts/2rebs

Coach Ghada Khattab commented on the U16 Girls Performance in the cup:

“This was a tough match for the U16 Girls, who went to Newcastle with a depleted squad and were struck by illness on the day. It did not take them long to adjust to the constant Newcastle pressure of a full court press and intensity of a Premier team, most a year older too, but keeping that throughout proved a challenge without enough subs, and our finishing suffered as a result. One thing, the girls showed their potential to compete at this level and the damage they could have inflicted with a full team, with some stellar protection of the key, brilliant fast breaks and players finding the right spaces and opportunities. A good wake-up call at the start of the season!

LET’S GO EAGLES