There was a lot of movement among the top teams in the BBL Championship on Saturday night as the Marshall MK Lions jumped into second spot, and the Cheshire Jets and Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders moved into fourth and fifth respectively.
The Lions made it two wins in consecutive nights, and six in a row overall, as they battled to a 57-62 win at the Essex Pirates. The Lions failed to score in the first seven minutes of the second quarter, and fell behind at 27-22. However, they recovered before half time and regained the lead in the third. The teams were tied at 56 entering the last two minutes, but Dawud Morris kept his cool at the free-throw line to give the Lions a lead that they wouldn't relinquish. Walid Mumuni missed a three-pointer that would have tied the game with 4 seconds remaining.
Elsewhere, the Riders beat the Guildford Heat 95-77 after outscoring their opponents 60-27 in an amazing second half. Tack Minor had a double-double of 26 points and 14 assists and Jason Johnson had one of his own with 26 points and 12 rebounds. The Riders had trailed by 15 at the halfway points but there was a 22 point swing in the third quarter and they never looked back.
Meanwhile, the Cheshire Jets made it four wins in a row in all competitions to keep themselves in amongst it at the top of the table as they beat the Worthing Thunder 74-98 on the South Coast. The Thunder have now lost five of their last six games. Chez Marks scored 20 points for the Jets, including 15 in the first half, as they led from tip to buzzer.
Essex Pirates 57 – 62 Marshall MK Lions
Essex Pirates 57 (16,32,46) (Williams 17, Adu 12, Mumuni/Rodrigo 9)
Marshall MK Lions 62 (22,32,49) (Harrison 13, Youngblood 13, Holmes 11)
The Marshall MK Lions made it a winning weekend as they beat the Essex Pirates 57-62. It was their second win in consecutive nights, and sixth win in a row overall.
In a low scoring game the Lions were led by 13 points each from EJ Harrison and Robert Youngblood, while Frank Holmes added 11. The hosts were led by the game's leading scorer, Dean Williams, who had 17.
Lions' Head Coach, Vince Macaulay, said, "The Pirates put up a great effort tonight and gave us a real run for our money. We couldn't buy a basket and it was our defence that won us through."
After a double-overtime game on the previous night the Lions were fastest out of the blocks and established a 16-22 first quarter lead. However, it all changed as they failed to score for the first seven minutes of the second stanza as the Pirates scored 11 points of their own to lead 27-22. The Lions recovered and the teams went into the locker rooms tied at 32.
The Lions edged the third to lead 46-49 before a tight fourth quarter ensued. The teams were tied at 54 with five minutes remaining and then again at 56 with two minutes left. Dawud Morris gave MK the edge with two free-throws and they led 58-56, and then 60-57 entering the final seconds. Walid Mumuni had a chance to tie the game, but he missed a three-pointer with 4 seconds left, before the Lions kept their cool on the line to see it out.
Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 95 – 77 Guildford Heat
Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 95 (24,35,66) (Johnson 26, Minor 26, Wierzbicki 19)
Guildford Heat 77 (25,50,59) (Langhorne 20, Ogedengbe 18, Joseph/Martin 12)
The Jelson Homes Leicester Riders beat the Guildford Heat by 95-77 to jump above their opposition into fifth place in the BBL Championship table. It was only the second time in three and a half years that the Riders have beaten the Heat at home, and they did so courtesy of an amazing second half that they won 60-27.
They were led by a double-double of 26 points and 14 assists from Tack Minor and one of 26 points and 12 rebounds from Jason Johnson. Kenny Langhorne scored 20 to lead the visitors.
The early exchanges were tight, although the Riders had the edge at 11-6 after Johnson finished the alley- oop from Wierzbicki, and Minor's three-pointer made it 18-12. However, the Heat finished the period with an 8- 2 burst to take the edge at 24-25.
The Heat carried that momentum into the second and within five minutes they had a double-digit lead at 31- 41. That was thanks, in large part, to three-pointers from Joseph, Langhorne and Ogedengbe, with the latter also making an old-fashioned three point play to stretch the lead to ten. It reached 31-47 in what had become a 30-9 run. The Riders struggled to make much of a dent in that lead, trailing 35-50 at the half.
Amazingly, there was a 22 point swing in the third stanza as the Riders won it 31-9. They took a chunk out of that lead and made it a one possession game when, after three minutes, they posted a 10-0 run, capped by Wierzbicki's basket, to make it 49-52. The Riders then snatched the lead back at 55-54 with three minutes left in the third, as the Heat scored only four points in seven minutes. The teams were tied at 59 until Minor took over at the end of the third: he scored two baskets and set up another in a 7-0 finish that saw the Rider enter the decisive period 66-59 to the good.
The Riders kept up the pressure and established a double-digit lead of their own at 74-64 on Johnson's basket in what was an 8-0 push. Another Wierzbicki triple helped the lead out to 86-71, from where there was no way back for the Heat.
Worthing Thunder 74 – 98 Cheshire Jets
Worthing Thunder 74 (15,42,60) (Cricelli 17, Zafirov 15, Makalainen 13)
Cheshire Jets 98 (26,48,70) (Marks 20, Peterson 16, Hamilton/Myers 13)
The Cheshire Jets beat Worthing Thunder 74-98 to make it four wins in a row in all competitions and keep up the pressure on those at the top of the BBL Championship.
They were led by 20 points from Chez Marks, including 15 in the first half, and 16 points from Paul Peterson. The Thunder were led by Sam Cricelli's 17 points.
The visiting Jets led from tip to buzzer and asserted themselves on the game from the outset as Marks's three-pointer gave them a 5-0 lead, which became 3- 14 as Marks added four more points in an 8-0 burst. Cricelli and Zafirov stopped the rot for the hosts with three-pointers, but with just under four minutes remaining in the first another 8-0 run, capped by O'Reilly's triple, put the Jets 11-24 up and they led 15- 26 after the first ten minutes.
The Jets dominated the early stages of the second until James Brame hit consecutive three-pointers for the Thunder, and a Cricelli basket narrowed the deficit to 25-31. The Jets pushed it back out again with three consecutive baskets. But within the final minute Zafirov scored five straight points to get the Thunder as close as they had been since the second minute of the game at 42-46. The teams went in at the break with the Jets up 42-48 as Marks scored his fifteenth point of the half with a layup.
The Jets stopped their hosts in their tracks straight out of the dressing rooms as Peterson hit a three to spark a 7-0 burst. Zafirov responded by scoring the next 7 points himself, but Marks halted that with a triple and the Jets responded with 8 straight points to lead 50- 63. Worthing failed to make much headway, although Brame's three-pointer got the deficit back down to single figures, only for Peterson to make two of two at the line to end the quarter with the Jets leading 60-70.
The Jets finished off their hosts in the fourth quarter as they posted an early 7-0 burst, followed by an emphatic 15 points in a row, including 7 from John Simpson, to make the score an unassailable 66-92 with under four minutes remaining.
BBL Championship Table
P W L Pts
1 Newcastle Eagles 7 6 1 12
2 Marshall MK Lions 8 6 2 12
3 Sheffield Sharks 9 6 3 12
4 Cheshire Jets 7 5 2 10
5 Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 8 5 3 10
6 Guildford Heat 6 4 2 8
7 Worthing Thunder 8 3 5 6
8 Glasgow Rocks 5 2 3 4
9= Essex Pirates 6 2 4 4
9= Everton Tigers 6 2 4 4
11= PAWS London Capital 6 1 5 2
11= Worcester Wolves 6 1 5 2
13 Airwaves Plymouth Raiders 4 0 4 0
Source: www.bbl.org.uk
