SUNDAY 9 MARCH 2008
BBL Championship
After finding out that leading scorer Charles Smith may miss
the rest of the regular season with an injury, the Newcastle
Eagles found the perfect remedy for that and their BBL Trophy
Final loss as they bounced back with two wins to strengthen
their position at the top of the BBL Championship table.
The Eagles beat their northernmost rivals, the SAMG Verve
Scottish Rocks, 79-75 at the MetroRadio Arena on Friday, before
winning comfortably 67-88 at basement side Birmingham Panthers
the following night. It was a good weekend for their big men
as Lynard Stewart scored 20 against the Rocks and Darius Defoe
led all scorers with 28 points at the Panthers.
Those wins, combined with back-to-back losses for the Guildford
Heat - for only the third time in the league in the last two
years - leaves the Eagles with the edge in the BBL Championship
title race as they have nine games remaining.
The Heat lost 99-92 to the PAWS London Capital on Saturday,
and then went down 105-112 at home to the league's form team,
the Worcester Wolves, the following day. For the Wolves, that
was their sixth consecutive win and their second of the weekend
after beating Everton Tigers by 119-104 the night before their
first ever win over the Heat.
Meanwhile, the Kularoos Plymouth Raiders are continuing their
title push. The league's sternest defence held the Jelson
Homes DMU Leicester Riders to just 4 points in the first quarter
as they went on to win 71-107 in the East Midlands to consolidate
second place in the table.
The Marshall MK Lions still occupy a top-four spot after
condemning the Riders to the first of their defeats this weekend,
88-67 on Friday night, with former Rider Yorick Williams sinking
19 points.
The Lions followed that win by snatching an 88-92 victory
at the BiG Storage Cheshire Jets on Sunday. Yorick Williams
hit 8 points in a late 11-0 surge, before fouling out of the
game, as the Lions led only in the first minute and the last
three-minutes of the game.
The fifth-placed Rocks halted a four-game losing streak as
Maurice Hampton hit 6/7 three-pointers on his way to 24 points
in a 110-63 defeat of the Birmingham Panthers. That was the
largest winning margin that a Rocks' side has ever achieved
over a Birmingham franchise.
BiG Storage Cheshire Jets 88 (23,44,68) (Moore
23, Costantiello 17, Hamilton 14)
Marshall MK Lions 92 (18,44,62) (Brown 28,
Youngblood 15, Spinks 12)
The Marshall MK Lions scored their second win of the weekend,
and revived their BBL Championship season, with a late rally
to win 88-92 at the BiG Storage Cheshire Jets. The Lions won
the series with the Jets in the process by two games to one,
and are 3-2 with the Jets in all competitions this season.
Terrell Brown hit six three-pointers on his way to 28 points
to lead all scorers, with Robert Youngblood posting 15 points
and Dru Spinks reaching double figures for the second time
in consecutive weeks with 12 points. Former league MVP Trey
Moore led the Jets with 23 points.
The Lions only led very early and very late in the game.
They scored the first 3 points before they were hit with a
19-5 burst from the hosts. The Lions scored the last 8 points
of the quarter to keep the game close, and it would remain
that way throughout.
Youngblood hit the opening 5 points of the second period
to tie the game at 23, and the sides could not be separated
during the ensuing quarter as they went in knotted at 44 at
half time.
The Jets pushed the lead out once more in the third period
as Gianni Costantiello and James Hamilton had 4 points each
in a 12-3 run that made the score 56-47. However, the Lions
set up a tantalising fourth quarter as a Yorick Williams triple
contributed to them scoring the last 6 points of the quarter
and they were 68-62 down going into the decisive period.
The Lions took their first lead since the opening exchanges
as a Williams three-pointer made it 81-82 with 3:00 left to
play, capping what had been an 11-0 burst. Williams had also
made another three and a two in that run before fouling out
of the game. The Jets kept the game close and it was 84-85
before the Lions closed out the last minute with Brown and
Spinks holding their nerve from the free-throw line.
Guildford Heat 105 (20,43,69) (Martin 24,
Harrison 23, Karlikanovas 19)
Worcester Wolves 112 (28,51,78) (Life 28,
Paez 27, Harker 25)
The Worcester Wolves continued their amazing run of form
as they beat the Guildford Heat 105-112 to record their sixth
consecutive win in the BBL Championship, their best run since
joining the BBL. The win compounded a weekend of misery for
the Heat, who also lost to the PAWS London Capital on Saturday,
only the third time that they have suffered back-to-back defeats
in the league in the last two years.
The league's leading scorer, James Life, had 28 points to
lead all scorers for the Wolves, whilst Anthony Paez added
27 and 8 rebounds. Mike Martin led the hosts with 24 points.
The reigning league champions had their only lead of the
game in the early stages at 4-0, before a 6-2 run from the
Wolves saw the teams tied and the visitors took the lead for
good at 10-12. A strong finish to the quarter, which saw 6
points from Anthony Paez, meant that the Wolves were 20-28
to the good after the first ten minutes, as player/coach Skouson
Harker added 12 points in the stanza.
Paez continued his scoring in the second period as he had
his team's first 6 points, but the Heat managed to narrow
the gap to 31-34 on the back of 6 unanswered points. However,
the irrepressible Wolves pushed it back out again, behind
9 points in the quarter from James Life, to lead 43-51 at
the break.
A strong start to the second half saw the Heat open with
a 16-9 run, which drew them to within one at 59-60 on Danny
Gilbert's three-pointer. However, once more the Wolves remained
resilient and a 15-4 response put the lead into double-figures
at 63-75 late in the third quarter.
The closest that the Heat would get in the fourth was at
74-80 as they posted a short 5-0 burst and Nerijus Karlikanovas
looked to rally his team with 16 points in the fourth quarter.
However, it was not enough as the Wolves hit 7 straight points
to lead 78-89 and they did not look back as Paez added another
15 points.
SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks 110 (25,57,84)
(Hampton 24, Yanders 20, Joseph 17)
Team Birmingham Panthers 63 (6,21,41) (L.
Williams 20, A. Williams 11, Wright 11)
The SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks snapped a four-game losing
streak in beating the Team Birmingham Panthers 110-63 at Braehead
Arena, the largest winning margin that the club has ever achieved
against a Birmingham franchise. For the fifth-placed Rocks,
it maintains their challenge for a top-four finish and homecourt
advantage in the BBL Championship Playoffs.
Maurice Hampton led all scorers as he shot 6/7 three-pointers
on his way to 24 points, whilst point guard Rob Yanders added
20 and Julius Joseph had 17. LaTaryl Williams scored 20 points
for the visitors.
The result was never in doubt as the Rocks asserted themselves
on the game from the very beginning with a 16-3 opening that
was inspired by 9 points from Rob Yanders. They held their
visitors to just 6 points in the opening period, whilst scoring
25 themselves.
Yanders continued to set the tone in the second as the Rocks
opened 7-2, and they soon led 39-13. Hampton hit one of his
five triples in the quarter, and that was followed by a dunk
from Gareth Murray as the Rocks led 51-15, which became 57-21
at the halfway point.
Panthers rallied in the third, but were halted in their tracks
by further triples from Hampton and Murray, as the score became
69-28. The Panthers showed some fight to close the third stanza
with a 14-4 push; LaTaryl Williams had 11 of those points,
and Cameron Wright hit a three-pointer on the buzzer to round
it off.
However, the Rocks did not take their foot off the gas late
on and back-to-back triples from Bilal Clarance sent them
over the 100 mark to send a message to the Panthers, whom
they face once more in their next game.
BBL CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE
No Team P W L Pts
1 Newcastle Eagles 24 21 3 42
2 Kularoos Plymouth Raiders 26 19 7 38
3 Poujoulat Heat Guildford 23 16 7 32
4 Marshall MK Lions 25 16 9 32
5 SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks 26 15 11 30
6 Everton Tigers 23 12 11 24
7 Worcester Wolves 27 12 15 24
8 Sheffield Sharks 23 11 12 22
9 BiG Storage Cheshire Jets 23 7 16 14
10Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 27 7 20 14
11PAWS London Capital 25 7 18 14
12Team Birmingham Panthers 24 5 19 10
|
