RESPLENDENT in their new blue and white strip, the Cheshire Phoenix were unable to beat the odds as BBL Championship title contenders Newcastle Eagles inflicted a punishing defeat on the newly re-branded franchise at the Northgate Arena.
Chez Marks turned out for the Phoenix despite ligament damage in his thumb which on Friday he was told would rule him out for a month.
He played through the pain barrier to help the Phoenix as they attempted to achieve an unlikely victory over the Championship's second-placed side.
The first quarter saw Fab Flournoy's men make their intentions perfectly clear as veteran Charles Smith nailed four impressive three pointers from way outside the arc.
Married to the hustle of Kareem Maddox in the paint and the ever-present talents of Joe Chapman and Darius Defoe the Eagles stretched out an 18-30 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Shawn Myers and Alif Bland worked hard on defence in an attempt to keep a lid on the Eagles and give the Phoenix a chance but as one avenue was closed another opened up, with former Cheshire Jet Anthony Martin and fellow guard Damon Huffman picking up any scraps left by the Eagles' big men.
The Phoenix performance was solid though and after the trials and tribulations of recent weeks the fact they were able to maintain a single-figure gap until late in the third quarter was laudable.
Jerome Gumbs, playing at forward for the Phoenix, looks better with every minute he is on-court and Gabe Haskins maintained his control of the offensive sets in the face of extreme pressure.
Marks fought his injury to play 38 minutes of the game and finished second-top scorer with 20 points behind the Eagles' Maddox (27).
His was not the only positive for the Phoenix. Despite the Eagles' dominance, Shawn Myers maintained his consistency this season as he posted yet another double-double scoring 13 points and pulling down 12 rebounds.
And he was joined by big centre Bland, who pocketed 16 points while securing 12 rebounds.
At the end of a gruelling test, having seen the Eagles pull clear in the later stages of the contest, Phoenix coach Matt Lloyd said: “It was a real tough game. It wasn't unexpectedly tough, we knew we would have to bring our 'A' game in order to succeed and we were right there until half time.
“We had a bit of a burst in the third quarter but maybe our gas ran out from Friday, but I was happy overall with the performance and the effort of the guys.
“Offensively we were better than we were defensively and that's our target for the next few weeks, to bring our defence up to the intensity of our offence.”
With the BBL programme running through the Christmas period for the Phoenix there are plenty of games coming up for the club to continue to improve now that they have a stable base following their second takeover this season.
“Hopefully we can get a run of good results over Christmas,” said Lloyd. “We're going to integrate Jerome (Gumbs) into the system much, much better this week with a full week of training and we have to target those teams that are around us.
“We'll analyse our performance, have a few video sessions to see what went well and what went wrong and we'll look to improve next time against the Glasgow Rocks.”
Lloyd remained coy on whether Chez Marks would be available for that game with his injured hand.
“We're not sure yet, we're waiting on results back from the physios and we’ll consult them during the week and make a decision toward the end of the week.”
