It’s fair to say that the period between Christmas and New Year and the two games played, have perfectly summed up the first part of the Surrey 89ers season.

A run of four successive Championship defeats was brought to an end by a tight, nervy, overtime victory on the road against the high-flying Bristol Flyers. A team that, in the previous meetings this season, had comfortably beaten the Niners.

In truth, the final result was mainly due to an inexplicable run of missed shots by the usually dependable Joe Anderson. Four successive free-throw misses were compounded by two missed buzzer-beating game-winning attempts at the end of normal and regulation time.

The Niners ran out 87-86 winners following the overtime period. A real team win for Lloyd Gardner’s team, led by a near triple-double from Ronald Polite, the point guard finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Buoyed by that victory, a full house at Surrey Sports Park welcomed the visiting Newcastle Eagles. A real chance for the Niners to close the gap in the league table against the visitors.

Struggles to start the game

A lacklustre start by both teams was halted when the Eagles began to find their range and ran out to a 14-point lead midway through the first period. Finally, the Niners began to find the basket and fought back to trail 17-25 at the first quarter.

A much-improved display from the hosts saw them lead for the majority of the second period. Isiah Small and Michael Graham are proving to be the dominant performers.

The second half saw the score flip back and forward between the two teams and looked to be heading right down to the wire. The game fell the Eagles’ way thanks mainly to a hot scoring streak from Aussie guard Mitch Clarke. Successive three pointers added to three scoring trips to the line, pushing the visitors to a match-winning 88-82 score line.

Surrey’s season summed up

These two games probably encapsulate the season so far for the Niners, a real struggle to find consistency. A stop-start season hasn’t helped, seeing the team still several games behind the majority of the league in terms of games played.

The season-ending injury to Kareem Queeley has left a huge gap in the squad, especially at a time when he was looking to be really returning to the levels we had seen in the past. Other injuries to Andrew Lawrence and Owen Koonce have left the squad short-handed for periods. Koonce is only now starting to show his true qualities as he gets a run of games.

These injuries have, though, enabled more progression of homegrown British talent. Seeing Timmy Nwankwo, Max Coupe and Josh Smith-White.

As we reach the turn of the year, we find Surrey in a familiar 8th place in the standings, with a current record of 4 wins and 8 losses. In truth, that could and probably should be a better record. Several games have gotten away from the Niners when they seemed certain to win.

Its clear to see that the search for consistency is the key. Should that be found, there is no doubt that this roster, when available and fit, is a match for most teams on its day. Sadly, at the moment the search continues.