Eagles 73 Barry Huskies 69

In a week-end that saw England beat Australia and France beat New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter finals, Abingdon too had its share of sporting drama as the Eagles U18s staged a remarkable fight-back to beat Barry Huskies, in their first match of the new season 73 – 69. “It was never in any doubt”, was the comment from Coach Baker, that would probably have made Pinocchio’s nose extend by 6”.

The Eagles opened the scoring with a floor shot within the D from Tom Friend. However, that was the last score they were to make for the next five minutes as the Huskies surged to a 16 – 2 lead with eight baskets in succession. The Eagles struggled to make any headway against a very well organised Huskies defence with a 6’6”number 10 at its heart. The Eagles managed four more scores before the end of the quarter but the Huskies maintained their dominance in defence whilst remaining sharp in attack, responding score for score. The quarter ended with the Eagles trailing 10 – 24.

What then followed was one of the most sustained and determined comebacks since the rebirth of Skoda cars.

In Q2 the Eagles started to find their way through the defence and greater accuracy with their shots. Lukas Aleksandravicius scored eight points (including two 3 pointers) before having to retire injured. Simon Rudd, Ben Pugh and Tom Friend kept the score ticking over whilst the Eagles worked hard in defence to keep the Huskies out. The Eagles won Q2 22 – 15 with five points in the final minute reducing the deficit to 32 – 39.

The Eagles sustained their pressure in Q3, with Ben and Simon dominating the scoring; both hit a 3-pointer apiece. Six points in the final minute of Q3 reduced the gap even further to 49 – 53.

Q4 was a tense affair and both teams committed a number of mistakes as the pressure intensified. James Dawe was subbed on in the second minute and made an immediate impact in defence followed by a great lay-up on the end of a sharp inside pass from Tom. Alex Ryan and Tom made a number of crucial steals and intercepts to break up the Huskies rhythm whilst Simon and Ben kept scoring at the other end. However it was not until the fifth minute that Ben sunk two free shots to draw the Eagles level at 60 points each.

The tension in the remaining five minutes was almost unbearable as the Eagles edged in front and fought to hold onto a thread-slim lead. The Huskies slipped up badly by fouling Ben on a three point attempt having successfully defended until the 24 seconds had all but expired. Ben successfully converted all of the resulting three free shots to give the Eagles a 71 – 65 lead going in to the last two minutes. The Huskies fought back to within two points before Simon scored from the corner in the dying seconds to wrap up the game.

The Eagles came through a really tough challenge with enormous credit to their competitive spirit and team play. Some great defence was played throughout the with some crucial steals by Alex Ryan, a couple of blocks from Tom Friend and some very secure rebounding from Chris Mannix, Josh Sutcliffe and James Dawe. The Huskies are a very well organised and skilful team who will be a very tough proposition for anyone in the Conference. The win and the manner of winning promises well for the Eagles this season and will hopefully to give their fantastically enthusiastic supporters more opportunity to cheer in the coming months.

Scorers:
Simon Rudd 23
Ben Pugh 20
Tom Friend 14
Lukas Aleksandravicius 8
Chris Mannix 4
Colin Doig 2
James Dawe 2