Falcons coach Peter Astley wanted to see improvement in his team's effort and execution after their insipid 93-71 loss to Maitland at Maitland the previous week and his players responded accordingly, albeit after a sluggish start.

Newcastle trailed by 14 points late in the first period and were down 26-17 at quarter-time but the Falcons reeled the Sea Eagles in during the second term to lead 42-34 by half-time and went on with the job.

The win was Newcastle's ninth from their past 10 games and kept the Falcons on top of the table with a 9-3 win-loss record, ahead of second-placed Canberra Gunners (9-4), who pipped Sutherland 70-69 at Sutherland on Saturday night.

Led by everywhere-man Ryan Beisty (15 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, three steals, two blocked shots), six Newcastle players scored in double figures.

Myles Cherry compiled a team-high 16 points, to go with eight rebounds and five assists, import JaShaun Smith avoided foul trouble to post 14 points and five rebounds, and Jakob Dorricott had 14 points in 13 minutes.

Starting guards Jaidyn Goodwin (11 points, six rebounds, five assists) and Matur Maluach (11 points, four rebounds) steered the team from the back-court and set the tone on defence.

"It was just a really solid, well rounded, team effort," Astley said. "We worked hard on the lessons learnt from last week, took accountability for those as a group, and came up with a solid team performance to bounce back to the winners' circle.

"After a slow start, we executed our offence well - we shot 51% from the field and were 17 of 20 from the foul line - and that was all built on our defensive effort.

"JaShaun is building and adjusting to our style of play each game, and he had his best effort so far at both ends of the court, and Beisty and Goodwin's effort defensively on Indiana Faithfull was great."

Faithfull opened the scoring for Manly with consecutive three-pointers to give the visitors a 6-0 lead but was held to 17 points.

In the women's game, Newcastle leap-frogged Manly into fifth position with a tense 75-73 victory.

The Falcons led by as many as 16 points during the third quarter, and 75-67 with two minutes left in the game, but the Sea Eagles finished with a flurry.

Newcastle's second straight win improved their record to 7-4, setting up an exciting game against fourth-placed Illawarra (9-3) at Broadmeadow on Saturday.

"It was a little closer at the end than we would have liked but for the most part, it was a good performance and it's always good to get the win on our home court," Falcons coach Chloe Mullaney said.

Chyra Evans posted a team-high 24 points and 17 rebounds, and Nicole Munger hit five of six three-pointers in her haul of 23 points. Munger also pulled in seven boards to help the Falcons out-rebound Manly 47-32.

Emily Foy (13 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals) and Kate Kingham (nine points, six assists, four rebounds, one steal) also made valuable contributions for the Falcons.

The game against Illawarra is scheduled for a 5pm tip-off next Saturday, followed by the men's game at 7:15pm.

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