Eagles triumph in top of the table clash against Tracy Village Jets

EAGLES secured their place on top of the Darwin Men’s Basketball Championship table with an 82-75 win over main rivals Tracy Village Jets in Round 18 action.

Eagles’ Chris Elder stole the show in the fourth quarter against Tracy Village. Picture: Glenn Campbell

EAGLES secured their place on top of the Darwin Men’s Basketball Championship table with an 82-75 win over main rivals Tracy Village Jets in Round 18 action.

Jets started the better of the two sides with Ned Stevens (18 points), Jerron Jamerson (17) and Joel Stevens (12) laying on the early scores, extending their lead to as much as 13 points.

And though Eagles were in the fight from the start, early turnovers let them down with the ball not dropping in their favour.

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Consecutive slam dunks from Keenan Abbott and Jamerson seemed to suggest the momentum was purely in favour of Tracy Village.

But Eagles now with their run of 15 wins in a row refused to let go and come the second half they managed to claw their way back into the lead.

Joseph Jackson (20 points), Pat Golong (15) and Ambros Eugster (13) each applied plenty of pressure to see their side chip away at the score difference.

But it was the work of captain Chris Elder (24 points) in the fourth quarter that saw Eagles keep the lead ahead of their rivals.

“It’s a great feeling to be top of the ladder after battling back from down in third place,” Jackson told the NT News.

“The Jets are a really good team and I look forward to seeing them in finals. We just kept fighting being down by 10 but kept chipping away at that lead picking it up as the game went on.

“We just kept our heads when we were down. We knew where we were playing bad at the start so started to play our game rather than playing into their hands.

“Each week we come out and play our game. Every opponent we look at as a strong opponent and don’t take any game for granted and that has encouraged us to stay on this winning streak.”

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Meanwhile in other men’s league action, Essington Cannons (Elijah Barbour 31 points) came closer to securing their spot in the top four with a 78-62 win over Palmerston Power (Tom Godwin 21 points).