Controversial ending sees Newcastle Eagles lose at buzzer in ENBL debut

By Alan Mezoela on October 5, 2023

Image Credit: Newcastle Eagles/ENBL

Newcastle Eagles suffered a heart-breaking 94-92 defeat against at the hands of BC Šiauliai in their opening game of the European North Basketball League (ENBL) on Wednesday evening at the Šiauliai arena in Lithuania.

Jonathan Davis hits the game winner at the buzzer to break the hearts of the Newcastle Eagles in their ENBL debut against BC Siauliai, with a 94-92 defeat.

(Scoreboard is wrong)

Eagles led by 13 early in the 4th, giving up 30 points in the quarter. pic.twitter.com/jlPcb8PuZ9

— Hoopsfix (@Hoopsfix) October 4, 2023

However, the ending was not without controversy.

Jonathan Davis hit a 17 footer at the buzzer to win the game, but on the previous possession, Eagles’ Malcolm Delpeche was called for a questionable 3-second violation that has since been labelled as an incorrect call by the league.

The possession before the game winner…👀 https://t.co/TE6nnfMAIv pic.twitter.com/Z0yNmflmho

— Hoopsfix (@Hoopsfix) October 4, 2023

Šiauliai came back from 19-points down, having trailed by as many as 13 in the fourth quarter, as Davis had 28 points to go with his game winner, including 11 in the fourth quarter as he went 10-of-17 from the field.

Jordan Johnson led the Eagles in scoring with 28 points in their first ENBL game.

Tajh Green scored 15 points, scoring the majority of his points in the first half. Rickey McGill tied an ENBL record with six steals in this game.

With 55 seconds left to play, Larry Austin Jr tied the game at 92, before the controversial call on Delpeche.

Šiauliai improved to 2-1, while the Newcastle Eagles stand at 0-1.

Box score.

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix