Newcastle Eagles and Glasgow Rocks will meet in next month’s BBL Cup Final in Birmingham as the semi-finals headlined week 12 of the British Basketball League.
CUP FINAL SET
Newcastle Eagles are through to their fourth consecutive BBL Cup Final after defeating Sheffield Sharks 85-76 in the semi-final second leg at Sport Central, to secure a double-digit aggregate win (162-151).
The Eagles will be looking to regain the title that they last won in 2012 when they contest the final at the NIA in Birmingham in the New Year, having lost both of the two previous finals.
They will meet Glasgow Rocks in the Final after they took a 77-75 first-leg lead against Bristol Flyers on Friday and then routed the south-west side 84-57 in Scotland 48 hours later for a 161-132 aggregate win.
LEAGUE ACTION
Worcester Wolves defeated Manchester Giants 85-80 as they kept up the pressure at the summit of the BBL table.
Leeds Force were off the bottom of the standings for a mere 24 hours after beating Durham Wildcats 81-70, which sealed the head-to-head between the teams as Branimir Mikulic posted a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.
Surrey United were the league’s basement team for a short while but climbed off thanks to a 76-65 win over the Force in Guildford on Saturday night.
Anthony Downing led all scorers for Surrey with 20 points and also had seven assists and five rebounds, Kirk Crecco chipped in with 15 points, while Kramer Knutson was one rebound short of a double-double having finished with 14 points and nine boards.
Will Hall, Branimir Mikulic and Armando Anebo all finished with 13 points for the Force.
Fresh off securing a BBL Cup Final place, the Eagles made it 12 wins in a row in the league after registering a 99-82 win against London Lions. Charles Smith came off the bench to score a game-high 27 points for Newcastle.
Cheshire Phoenix handed Worcester Wolves only their third loss of the season, defeating the visitors 97-86 at the Northgate Arena to make it seven wins on the trot in the league. Taylor King scored 27 points for the rampant Cheshire side, while Alex Owumi had 30 for Wolves.
Sheffield Sharks notched up an important win on the road, coming back from a 16-point first-half deficit to upset Durham Wildcats 65-63. John Barber finished the game with 21 points of the bench for Sheffield, while Christopher Jones collected 17 in a losing effort for Durham.
