It was a good weekend for teams from the north-west as Cheshire Phoenix responded to disappointment in style and Manchester Giants produced a stunning fight-back to remain unbeaten.
The teams met last weekend as Yorick Williams’ side spoiled the Phoenix party by winning the first game at the new Cheshire Oaks Arena.
But John Lavery’s men bounced back from that result to triumph 90-82 on the road at Bristol Flyers.
Phoenix started well before a 14-2 Flyers run gave the hosts the edge during the third quarter.
The visitors were able to find another gear, however, and pulled away as Jordan Williams went for 24 points and David Aliu added 23.
“I knew they would come out strong in the third quarter,” Lavery said.
“We talked about it at half-time but we came out slow and sluggish, they hit us pretty quick and I had to call a time-out in the first minute-and-a-half of the third quarter.
“But we re-grouped after the time-out, put a few different things in place and I was pleased.
“The most pleasing part for me was that against Manchester we had 17 turnovers, which absolutely killed us, and on Saturday we turned the ball over four times.”
It completed a tough weekend for Flyers, who were edged 78-76 by Worcester Wolves on Friday after Pavol Losonsky nailed two late free throws to cap a 29-point, 16-rebound showing.
Giants trailed by as many as 18 points in the second half of their meeting with Plymouth Raiders on Sunday as Dante Williams poured in 20 points for the visitors.
But a 27-4 spell across the third and fourth quarters allowed the hosts to build a five-point advantage of their own before going on to see out a 95-89 win, which sees them improve to 2-0.
Olu Babalola led the way with 23 points for Giants while Ingus Bankevics (20 points) and Stef Gill (19) also came up with key scores down the stretch to extend Raiders’ wait for a first win.
Newcastle Eagles are now perfect through their opening three games after enjoying comfortable victories against Surrey Scorchers, 98-65, and Leeds Force, 91-63.
Scott Martin scored 24 points against Scorchers on Friday to pass 1,000 BBL points before Darius Defoe went for 18 against Leeds on Sunday.
Leicester Riders tipped of their BBL championship campaign with an impressive 88-54 demolition of Wolves.
Without a fixture during opening weekend, Rob Paternostro’s men played two tune-up games in Sweden, and they look to have done the trick as American duo TrayVonn Wright and Neil Watson picked up where they left off last season, combining for 47 points.
Meanwhile London Lions made it two wins from two with a 99-60 triumph against Force, behind an efficient 19 points and nine rebounds from Demond Watt.
Source: BBL
