London Lions beat Newcastle Eagles in SLB opener

London Lions began their defence of last season’s domestic quadruple with an 84-76 victory over Newcastle Eagles on Sunday 21 September at New City College Hackney, surviving a half-time deficit and a late foul-out crisis for the visitors to open the 2026/27 Super League Basketball Championship campaign.

The Lions, who claimed the SLB Championship, SLB Playoffs, SLB Cup and SLB Trophy in 2025/26, were forced to work considerably harder than that clean sweep of honours might have suggested. Newcastle led for long stretches and still trailed by only two points with minutes remaining before foul trouble stripped them of three key players and London seized control.

Newcastle lead for long stretches but shooting lets them down

The opening exchanges were sluggish, with almost two minutes passing before Lions guard Josh O’Garra netted the contest’s first points, prompting a 6-0 London start. Newcastle responded immediately through a Tavis Smith three-pointer and were subsequently transformed by Mitch Clarke’s introduction from the bench. Clarke sparked a 12-2 run that handed the Eagles a ten-point lead at one stage, with his personal contribution amounting to 12 of his eventual game-total of 15 points inside the first ten minutes alone. Newcastle ended the opening quarter eight points clear at 24-16.

An Adam Hamilton dunk extended that lead to nine early in the second period before London fought back with a 9-0 run of their own, aided by six free-throws, to take their first lead of the match at 32-31. Cam Christon’s three-pointer restored the Eagles’ advantage, and despite losing the second quarter 21-16, Newcastle held a 40-37 lead at the interval.

The third quarter mirrored the pattern. Newcastle moved nine clear again at 48-39 before the Lions reeled off a 13-3 run to retake the lead. Clarke and Blondeau Tchoukiegno traded three-pointers and with ten minutes remaining the Lions led 59-56. Smith then scored five points in succession to nudge Newcastle back in front by two, setting up a tense final quarter.

Foul trouble proves decisive as Lions close out the win

The game remained tight until the final two minutes, when Newcastle’s evening unravelled rapidly. Clarke, Smith and Christon all fouled out in quick succession, leaving head coach Marc Steutel with a depleted roster at the critical moment. The Lions capitalised with a match-winning 9-0 run that gave them the breathing space to close out the victory, according to Newcastle Eagles’ own post-match report.

Smith had been Newcastle’s top scorer despite fouling out, while Clarke’s bench contribution was the Eagles’ standout individual performance. The Newcastle club report noted that Steutel’s side shot just 38 per cent overall and 22 per cent from three-point range — a significant factor in why a competitive display ultimately did not yield a result. The absence of Eagles captain Josh Ward-Hibbert, who was inactive for the fixture, was also cited by the club as a factor, particularly given his defensive capabilities.

Steutel, speaking ahead of the match in preview material published by Newcastle Eagles, had acknowledged the scale of the challenge, pointing to the Lions’ pre-season victory over EuroLeague side Paris Basketball as evidence of the level London are operating at. The Eagles’ next fixture is a home game at the Vertu Arena on Friday against Bristol Flyers.

Lions arrive in form with bigger goals in mind

The victory was London’s second of the young season; they had already claimed an 80-78 road win at Bristol Flyers on the opening Friday of the campaign. The result consolidates the Lions’ early position and extends a run of form that suggests the quadruple champions have arrived in the new season with considerable momentum.

The 2026/27 campaign is the third season of Super League Basketball, which launched in 2024 following the folding of the British Basketball League. The competition has grown to ten teams this season with the addition of Liverpool Basketball, and fixtures remain available to watch globally on DAZN without charge.

Newcastle Eagles owner Paul Blake, who also serves as an SLB director, told BBC Sport ahead of the season that the quality of players across the division was, in his view, the highest it had been during his 30 years of involvement in British basketball, and that the league had never been more competitive across that period.

The Lions are back in EuroCup — EuroLeague’s second-tier European club competition — for a second consecutive season, having finished eighth out of ten teams last term. Lions chief executive Lenz Balan told BBC Sport the club aimed to improve on that performance, with summer recruitment including the loan arrival of 2025-26 EuroLeague winner Keenan Evans among the moves intended to strengthen their European prospects.

Historic NBA friendly awaits on 12 October

Domestically, the Lions face the task of retaining four trophies across a long and demanding season. Beyond that, a landmark occasion looms: on 12 October, London will become the first British side to play an NBA team when they face Portland Trail Blazers in a friendly in the United States, according to BBC Sport. Balan told the broadcaster the fixture represented an important signal in the basketball world of the club’s ambitions, describing it in terms of a long-held personal aspiration and framing it as part of a broader aim to establish London Lions among the most recognisable clubs in world basketball.