Northumbria Target Trophy Double

Team Northumbria finished their NBL Division One weekend double-header on a high after breezing past struggling Lancashire Spinners 99-44.

A tough 84-72 loss at Reading Rockets 24 hours earlier put the pressure on the defending champions heading into their homecourt clash.

However, TN brushed aside the Spinners to keep their top-flight campaign on track.

“It’s hard to evaluate a game that’s so one sided,” said TN coach Marc Steutel.

“I was pleased with how we held the ball and how we executed our game plan.

“Everyone contributed but Sam Speight gave us a real spark and I’m really pleased with him personally.

“He’s a great Northumbria player, he’s positive around the programme, he’s here every session, very committed and he works his backside off.

“Sometimes he doesn’t all get the minutes that I want him to get but it’s really good for him to come in and contribute positively. I think he gave us the edge that burst the game open against the Spinners.

“It was a real challenge at Reading and me and the guys came away feeling really disappointed.

“It’s always tough on a double header to be able to get back on the floor and win so I’m happy we’ve managed to do that.

“I respect Lancashire - they’re having a tough season and they’ll be the first to admit it. I think they’re 0-18 now, so we should have won and that’s not being disrespectful to them whatsoever.

“It was good for us to get in control of the game and do what we should be doing.”

TN have a busy week ahead of them with their Stan Calvert game taking place on Wednesday at Sport Central - followed by the National Trophy final against Solent Kestrels on Saturday, which could see them crowned as national champions for the second year in a row.

“Me and the guys are excited to get the chance to compete for silverware, it’s what you do it all for,” continued Steutel.

“The guys are a hard-working bunch and they deserve this chance.

“We’re always confident going into any game and this one is no different. Again, no disrespect, but we’ve played Solent twice this year and we’ve beaten them twice.

“They’re top of the league and I think they’re favourites to win the league now but we match up well with them.

“They have some talent, we’ve done a good job of slowing their talent down in the past and we need to make sure we can do that again.”