The Eagles' Cortez Edwards was named final MVP thanks to his 22 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and four steals
Sunday 16 May 2021 20:58, UK
Newcastle Eagles clinched the BBL play-off crown for a record seventh time in their history on Sunday as they overcame London Lions 68-66 in a tense final at Morningside Arena in Leicester.
Having finished fourth in the BBL Championship, the Eagles showed immense resilience to come through tough post-season ties against the Sheffield Sharks and Leicester Riders, and needed every ounce of that in the showpiece game.
It denied the Lions a play-off double after Mark Clark's ladies had beaten the Eagles in the WBBL final behind an MVP performance from Shanice Beckford-Norton and a triple-double from Kennedy Leonard.
The perennial contenders Newcastle trailed by double-figures on four separate occasions, finding themselves in such a hole after just three minutes, and despite a couple of comebacks they were still in that situation when the deficit peaked at 54-42 inside the final three minutes of the third quarter.
From there Cortez Edwards took over, as he scored six straight points in an 8-0 burst towards the end of the third, before he opened the fourth with the first five points and then lobbed up an 'alley-oop' pass for Evan Maxwell to give Eagles a 57-55 lead, their first since the opening possessions.
In total, it was a 15-1 surge in five and a half minutes over the third quarter break in which Edwards had scored 11, marking half of his total haul as he went on to be awarded MVP with a double-double of 22 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
Lions, who were missing two-time BBL MVP Justin Robinson through injury, were not done yet, as they came back to tie the game on three occasions and the teams were knotted at 66 apiece heading into the final minute. Edwards drove hard and drew a foul, icing both free-throws that would prove decisive as a series of strong defensive stands saw the job through for Newcastle, before Rahmon Fletcher intentionally missed a final free-throw so London were unable to call timeout and forced to throw up a desperate heave.
"I'm very happy, if you'd have said it was going to be 68-66 I'd have probably said, 'OK, what's going to happen in the fourth quarter?' I thought our defence was incredible, and it feels like we did a great job defending the three-point line," said Eagles head coach Ian Macleod post-game.
"We're three of three in finals in the most difficult year that most of us will ever remember. That's success. What else is success to us? Themba Yabantu playing 27 minutes in the game at Bristol and not looking out of place, when he came to us at 10-years-old. There's lots of different measurements of success. Externally it looks like trophies, and we have two of those this season."
London's Orlando Parker led all scoring in the game with 27 points alongside 12 rebounds and an assist, while DeAndre Liggins was held to just 13 points, three rebounds and 10 assists on the night.
Maxwell supported Edwards' standout display with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists, and BBL top scorer Fletcher mustered 13 points, three rebounds and 10 assists having produced a combined 61 points over Newcastle's two semi-final legs.
"I feel amazing," said MVP Edwards. "We had great resilience and just kept fighting and kept fighting. London is a great team, so we knew we had to stay together and pull through.
"I felt like in the second quarter I did everything well but score baskets, I was rebounding well, I had energy, and I was trying to pressure Liggins as much as possible. So once the third quarter came I just started to find my groove.
"We just wanted to make it difficult for everyone on their team to make decisions and just shrink the floor and close out well to their shooters."
