SATURDAY 22 MARCH 2008
BBL Championship
PAWS London Capital 62 (10,27,42) (Gariba 27, Henry-Fontaine
11, Knight 11)
Sheffield Sharks 79 (22,36,61) (Whyte 18,
Al. Virgil 16, Niesler 15)
The Sheffield Sharks ended a run of three successive defeats,
and also avenged two previous league defeats to the PAWS London
Capital, as they beat the Londoners by 62-79.
The win strengthened Sheffield's position in the top eight,
the Playoff spots, and has almost made it a mathematical impossibility
for the Capital to qualify for the post-season in their maiden
campaign in the Britain's top flight.
James Whyte led the scoring for the victors with 18 points,
whilst the backcourt pairing of Alto Virgil and Nathan Niesler
added 16 and 15 respectively. Ibrahim Gariba led the resistance
with a game-high 27 points.
The Sharks led from the early stages as three-pointers from
Niesler and Virgil contributed to an early 16-5 run that gave
them a 7-18 lead, which became 10-22 after the opening ten
minutes.
The hosts came back in the second stanza as a 10-2 tear narrowed
the gap to 24-28, but that would be as close as Sheffield
would allow them to get as the visitors responded immediately
by rattling off the next 7 points, going in 27-36 to the good
at the half.
The game was put beyond the hosts early in the third period
as Sheffield posted a 20-5 surge, including 5 crucial points
from Whyte and numerous trips to the free-throw line. The
lead peaked early in the fourth quarter as the Sharks scored
the first 8 points and led 42-69. The Capital fought back
from that point behind 7 points from Pierre Henry-Fontaine
and 7 from Gariba, but the closest they could get was 60-76
in the final minute.
BBL CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE
No Team P W L Pts
1 Newcastle Eagles 27 24 3 48
2 Kularoos Plymouth Raiders 27 20 7 40
3 Guildford Heat 25 18 7 36
4 Marshall MK Lions 26 17 9 34
5 SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks 27 16 11 32
6 Everton Tigers 25 12 13 24
7 Sheffield Sharks 27 12 15 24
8 Worcester Wolves 27 12 15 24
9 BiG Storage Cheshire Jets 26 9 17 18
10 Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 28 8 20 16
11 PAWS London Capital 28 7 21 14
12 Team Birmingham Panthers 26 5 21 10
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