BBL Championship
Birmingham Panthers 58 (18,34,42) (Popoola 13, A.
Williams 13, Sandell 11)
Guildford Heat 94 (16,36,65) (Nottley 22, Gilbert 12, Williams
11)
The Guildford Heat are mathematically still in the BBL Championship
title race after they beat the Birmingham Panthers by 58-94
in the West Midlands, setting up a huge game when they host
the Newcastle Eagles on Sunday.
It was the Heat's fifth straight league win, and their third
of the season over the Panthers.
Big John Nottley took advantage of the lack of size amongst
the Panthers as he scored 22 points to lead all scorers, supported
by 12 points from Danny Gilbert and 11 from Dean Williams.
Former Heat guard Lekan Popoola led the Panthers with 13 points.
In an amazing first half, the BBL's basement side held the
reigning league champions scoreless for 5:30 and moved into
an 8-0 lead. At that point, Coach Paul James benched his entire
starting five and that provided the spark for the Heat to
get going.
The visitors were still trailing 18-16 after the first ten
minutes, but edged a close first half as they eventually took
the lead at 30-32, before leading 34-36 at the halfway point.
The Heat came out in the third quarter and immediately made
the run that won the game as they went 24-5 for a 39-60 lead.
Former Birmingham player Tony Dorsey had 6 points in that
run, with Gilbert scoring 10 of those. >From that point
there was no way back into it for the hosts as the Heat eased
to the victory.
PAWS London Capital 89 (19,43,66) (Bradley 15, Ataha
14, Knight 14)
Everton Tigers 81 (20,34,55) (Midgley 27, Davis 19, Aliu 17)
The PAWS London Capital won back-to-back league games for
the first time since November as they overcame the Everton
Tigers by 89-81.
The Capital can no longer make the BBL Championship Playoffs,
but have begun to salvage something from their season after
taking the head-to-head series with the Tigers. For playoff-bound
Everton, it was their sixth defeat in the last seven games.
The win sees London draw level with the Jelson Homes DMU
Leicester Riders in tenth place, setting up a significant
game between the two sides next week as they look to finish
in as high a position as possible.
Sam Bradley returned from injury to lead the Capital with
15 points, whilst guards Marcus Knight and Santa Ataha had
14 each. GB international Richard Midgley led all scorers
with 27 points in vain for Everton.
The hosts were quick out of the blocks and soon led 7-0,
only for Delme Herriman to hit 4 points and inspire a 12-4
finish to the first stanza that saw the Tigers edge it 19-20.
The teams remained close throughout the second period, before
the Londoners finished with the last 11 points for a commanding
43-34 lead at a venue in which they took the scalps of the
Guildford Heat and SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks last month.
The Tigers hit the first 7 points of the third quarter, including
three free-throws from Calvin Davis after he was fouled when
shooting from downtown, to make it a one-possession game.
However, 7:00 into the period, Santa Ataha hit 5 consecutive
points to stretch the lead to double-digits at 56-46 for the
Capital.
The visitors looked to set up an exciting fourth quarter
as they opened with an 8-2 push. The Capital withstood the
pressure and posted a 7-3 run in the closing stages, mostly
from Bradley and Knight at the charity stripe, to put the
game beyond Everton at 87-78.
BBL CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE
No Team P W L Pts
1 Newcastle Eagles 30 26 4 52
2 Kularoos Plymouth Raiders 30 22 7 44
3 Guildford Heat 28 21 7 42
4 Marshall MK Lions 29 18 11 36
5 SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks 29 16 13 32
6 Sheffield Sharks 29 14 15 28
7 Everton Tigers 29 13 16 26
8 Worcester Wolves 29 13 16 26
9 BiG Storage Cheshire Jets 29 9 20 18
10Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 30 9 21 18
11PAWS London Capital 30 9 21 18
12Team Birmingham Panthers 28 5 23 10
|
