LEE DAVIE hopes his Durham Wildcats can bounce back from their derby defeat to the Newcastle Eagles and get back to winning ways against Glasgow Rocks on Sunday afternoon.

Eagles turned in an impressive second-half performance to win their North-East BBL derby with Wildcats 90-75 at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre last weekend, and with a trip to Scotland next on the agenda, Davie has stressed the importance of bouncing back.

“Glasgow are going to be a tough task for us on their home court, said Davie. “We had some extra time this week to prepare for next weekend’s game.

“Glasgow are a difficult team to play, but if we focus this week in training and work hard to correct our mistakes, I’m confident we can get back to winning ways.

"They are a very well coached team with veteran leadership from both coach Sterling Davis and their captain EJ Harrison. EJ has been playing very well of late and you always need know where he is.

"We showed last time we can be very disruptive defensively, which allowed us to get out and run on them, and then in the half court we had some success both inside and outside last game, which we will need to recreate."

Last weekend, Scott Martin's 21 points led the way for the Eagles as Fab Flournoy's team won the second half by 16 points to keep the pressure on at the top of the BBL Championship table.

Eagles never trailed during the first quarter, with Drew Lasker's dunk with two seconds of the period to play cementing their 21-18 advantage.

Durham dominated the second ten minutes of action though, taking the lead at 24-23 on Devin Ginty's three and moving out to 40-35 on four straight points from Danny Huffor.

However, the Eagles scored the last four points of the half to ensure they trailed by just one point at the interval.

A 17-6 run by the Eagles helped them take the score from 43-42 to 60-48 in the third quarter, before Wildcats ended the period with the last six points.

However, Newcastle continued to dominate in the final quarter, embarking on a 14-4 run to take the score to 74-60 before going on to make the match safe.

Speaking after the game, Coach Davie was disappointed not to get his team’s first ever win over their neighbours.

“We started really well and worked hard to get the lead and felt we were in control of the game going into the half,” Davie said.

“In the third quarter we didn’t execute our game plan and when you play a team like Newcastle, you can’t make mistakes, or they will punish you. Once they got a comfortable lead, it was always going to be very difficult for us to get back into the game.

“The atmosphere was something else, both sets of supporters were fantastic and kept the noise levels going throughout the contest. The home support this year has been great, but against Eagles it was something else, despite the defeat, it was a very proud day for the club, and I hope we can repeat that atmosphere many times in the future.”