Proud Steutel salutes the spirit and firm values of his Newcastle Eagles heroes

NEWCASTLE

- By JEFF KING

Gus Okrafor was in fine form

Eagles will aim for back-to-back SLB Trophy wins after they ousted the Cheshire Phoenix to maintain their hold on the silverware.

Powered by Gus Okafor and Ray'Sean Taylor who had 16 points each, the Eagles captured the first leg 100-89 to take an 11-point advantage into Sunday's second leg.

Despite that defeat, Cheshire Phoenix had a chance to dethrone Newcastle on their home floor and they almost did, as Patrick Robinson exploded for 40 points in a 112-105 victory.

However, apart from a crazy last quarter and in a game where there were 55 fouls and the team's combined for 79 free-throws it was Newcastle that kept their nerve down the stretch.