Bridge Working Overtime Ahead of Playoff Game
Newcastle Eagles' captain Andrew Bridge will not be concerned
if their BBL Championship Playoff quarter- final against the
Worcester Wolves goes to overtime after his side won their
fourth successive game in an extra period last weekend. After
securing the league title in overtime at Guildford on April
6th, the Eagles host the Wolves on Friday night at the MetroRadio
Arena (7.30pm tip-off).
Eagles won at home against the Sheffield Sharks to continue
a BBL record for successive overtime games, and despite Newcastle
being without Charles Smith and Jeremy Hyatt for the first
three games in that run, Bridge thinks his own personal form
has improved during their absence,
"I'm feeling really good, although with Charles and
Jeremy missing some our practices haven't been quite as intense
as I would have liked. We could get away with not doing quite
as much as we should have.
"Personally, I think the extra court time has taken
me back to the condition I was in before Christmas and during
January. I played for 48 minutes in the game at Milton Keynes,
and I still felt good at the end of the game.
"Perhaps I should ask for a clause in my contract for
overtime pay! Having said that, we'll happily take a win in
regulation time against Worcester."
However, Bridge was pleased to see the pair of BBL veterans
return to action on Sunday,
"It's great to have Jeremy and Charles back, but I imagine
they'll be coming off the bench. A few years ago they would
have expected to go straight back into the starting line-up,
but they understand the situation, and are comfortable with
it. Having two MVP-quality players coming off the bench is
a great boost for the team."
The Eagles finished first, with the Wolves eighth, in the
BBL Championship table. Yet that does not tell the story of
this game as the Wolves are one of only three sides to have
beaten the Eagles in league action this season. The score
was 100-94 in the Midlands in January, behind a combined 59
points from James Life and Anthony Paez, and that is reason
enough for Bridge and his team to be wary of this opposition,
"We need to make sure we slow them down, and stop their
key players getting their shots. We need to slow down [James]
Life, [Anthony] Paez and Skouson [Harker], make them take
lots of shots for their points.
"That doesn't mean we'll look to slow our own tempo
down, we'll still look to get out and run, we just need to
stop their fast-break. We cannot ignore their other guys,
Chuck Evans and Shaun Durant can both hurt us if we concentrate
on the other three too much."
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