Eagles Weekly Wrap - Issue:15

Below is our Wrap of the games that took place in week 11 of the 2023/24 season. 

Wednesday 6th December 2023

York Eagles II v QE Knights

U16 Jr NBL North Conference 1

Result: 52-71 (Loss)

Player of the Game:

Joe Coyle – 13pts/8rebs

Coach Reece Horton’s commented on the U16s II performance:

“After a good win at the weekend, I'd hoped we go into this with a better performance, unfortunately, we lacked good ball pressure on defence and failure to close out their shooters.”

Saturday 9th December 2023

York Eagles II @ Grimsby Phoenix

U14 Jr NBL North Conference 1

Result: 43-94 (Loss)

Player (s) of the game:

Cameron Stewart – 13pts/9rebs

Coach Steve Hardisty commented on the U14s II performance:

“Firstly, thank you to the parents for making the journey to Grimsby today. Our furthest destination of the season, which was damned with horrible weather and then compounded with another disappointing performance by the boys. They struggled again, against a bigger and more physical Phoenix side, and there is no escaping that the game was a little painful to watch at times, with the boys repeating the same mistakes, especially reaching-in fouls and dealing with the Grimsby press. The game was certainly made even more challenging by getting into early foul trouble. There are positives: the boys are starting to minimise turnovers, they can at times demonstrate really effective help defence and they are beginning to set screens as a matter of instinct; they just aren’t using them effectively to create scoring opportunities. We need to be more physical and control the aggression and not just foul on defence.”

York Eagles @ Stockport Lapwings

U14 Jr NBL Girls North Conference 

Result: 76-58 (Win)

Player of the game: 

Danika Croft – 19pts

Coach Ghada Khattab commented on the U14s Girls performance:

“This was our toughest game so far this season, not helped by a last-minute change of match date and a very noisy venue due to two other adjacent matches. This made it hard for the girls to focus and communicate with each other on the court, but we still got off to a good start thanks to good teamwork and several players contributing to the scoresheet. Quarter 2 saw our performance dip due to too many fouls and turnovers. Stockport was great on defence and we needed to get more physical. We also needed to slow the game down and trust our plays, but we had to wait till the 3rd quarter for that to materialise. Then excellent scoring from Danika, Grace, Maya, and Katherine, and great rebounds and assists by everyone. Stockport gave it one last push in the fourth and benefited from a bit of loss of coups on our part, but we maintained our lead and by doing so, our overall lead of the conference for the first half of the season 8-0. Super proud of our players and can’t wait till next term!"

Sunday 10th December 2023

York Eagles @ Derby Trailblazers

U16 Jr NBL Northern Premier

Result: 63-71 (Loss)

Player of the game: 

George Andrews – 12pts/7rebs/3stls

Coach Paul Pickering commented on the U16s Performance:

“A very lacklustre display resulted in a very poor result for the guys. A lack of passion, desire, and offensive production with poor decisions being made on shots due to a lack of movement. The most disappointing performance as a team with only George really competing for 40 minutes. Emilis turned in a decent performance but ended up in foul trouble early. I don’t normally comment on the refereeing, but a poor performance thought out for them, and 2 really bad errors summed up a bad day in Derby!”

Notable performances:

Emilis Vildziunas – 23pts/5rebs/5asts/2blks

York Eagles v Tees Valley Mohawks

U16s Jr NBL North Conference 1

Result: 54-66 (loss)

Player of the Game:

Ben Kelsall – 13pts/6rebs

Coach Reece Horton commented on the U16s II performance:

“Created good chances, but the finishing wasn’t always there. Still searching for consistency on defence. Being able to stop them for periods of the game but then give away fast break layups. Definite progression over the first half of the season.”

Notable Performances:

Samson Frusher – 9pts/3rebs/4stls/3asts

York Eagles v Manchester Magic

U18 Jr NBL Northern Premier

Result: 35-72 (Loss)

Player of the Game:

Radlie Gimarangan

Coach Rod Gimarangan commented on the U18s performance:

“We knew this game would be challenging against a strong Magic team. Having started the 1st quarter strong, down 4 points, we struggled to sustain this gap. Our team was incomplete, yet we still fought until the end. Hopefully, we’ll all learn from this game and work harder for our upcoming games. Back to the drawing board…”

York Eagles @ Leeds LDM

U14 Jr NBL North Conference 1

Result: 71-47 (Win)

Player of the Game:

Caleb Flitcroft – 16pts/8rebs

Coach Tyler Paton-Pottage commented on the U14s performance:

“I said to the guys that the way to win was to settle early and don’t allow the opponent to intimidate you and defence will win you this game. However, we didn’t settle, turning over the ball and couldn’t get a shot to go. We then stepped up defensively as we got steals and blocks and then found gaps on offence to finish. Then we ran riot on the final 15 minutes to win a BIG game. A true team performance from all 10 players and the players have bought into the development process and its paying dividends.”

Associate Head Coach Tyler Paton-Pottage comments on this week:

“Another week flies by and again our U14s A and U14s Girls pick up massive wins against title rivals, both looking to a very exciting 2024. Still a lot of work to be done with the older ones in getting them developing and get better habits out of them in games."