Newcastle Eagles 84-77 London Lions: Newcastle win see-saw contest for seventh BBL Cup title
Justin Gordon takes Cup Final MVP honours finishing with 18 points, 15 rebounds, three assists and three blocks, while Rahmon Fletcher led the scoring with 21 points
Last Updated: 25/01/21 10:57am
Newcastle Eagles won the BBL Cup for the seventh time in their history after an 84-77 victory over the London Lions in one of the most dramatic finals in the history of the competition.
It is the fifth time the Eagles have won the Cup in the last decade - although their first since 2017, up to which point they had won three in a row - and they did it the hard way, coming from behind at the death to secure a second piece of silverware in Ian Macleod's tenure as head coach.
Eagles had led by as many as 15 points as Justin Gordon and Rahmon Fletcher scored 14 each in the first half.
A 10-1 push over the first quarter break and an 8-2 burst in the second stanza made it 40-28 three minutes before the break.
However - despite playing the game with just seven players as the rest of the squad had to self-isolate under COVID-19 protocols - Lions mounted a brave second-half comeback.
A scintillating 16-2 third-quarter run got them back within one, and they followed that with a 19-7 surge in the fourth quarter to snatch a 76-69 lead with four minutes to play as Justin Robinson, Orlando Parker and Kevin Ware, twice, hit big triples.
But the Eagles proved incredibly resilient to halt that momentum as, from there, they burst out of a timeout to score 12 straight points when a corner three from Gordon tied the game, before Louis Sayers did the same from the opposite corner to give Newcastle the lead for good at 79-76 with two minutes to play.
It was a nervy finish until, with 30 seconds remaining, Gordon dragged down a huge offensive rebound - his 15th board of the game, a Cup Final record - enabling Fletcher to make a big score inside the paint that made it a two-possession game at 81-76 and settled the tie.
The MVP award went to Justin Gordon as he finished with 18 points, 15 rebounds, three assists and three blocks, while Rahmon Fletcher led the scoring with 21 points.
Leicester Riders made it three BBL Championship wins on the bounce with a 90-58 defeat of Glasgow Rocks at the Morningside Arena thanks to 18 points, eight rebounds, and four assists from Corey Johnson.
The hosts scored 20 straight points in the first quarter to dominate from the outset, Zach Jackson hitting 10 in that spell; and followed that with a 9-0 opening to the second stanza, before holding Rocks to just eight in that period, for 48-22 at the half and no way back for the visitors.
