Home Domestic Leagues British Basketball League round up (week 17)

British Basketball League round up (week 17)

The BBL Trophy first round dominated this week’s play in Great Britain, with teams from the England Basketball League Division 1 joining the fray to challenge the top teams.

EBL side Bristol Academy Flyers caused the upset of the round, as they led from start to finish, beating Surrey United at home 91-75.

It was the second time in two seasons that an EBL side has beaten a BBL opponent in the Trophy with Worthing Thunder topping Mersey Tigers last year.

Bristol now moves on to the quarter finals as 17-year-old Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye led the winners with 19 points on the night.

Another EBL side, the Reading Rockets were competitive but fell just short against the holders Sheffield Sharks as the BBL side won 85-73 in Berkshire.

Nick Lewis was outstanding for the Sharks, with an impressive game-high of 33 points. Reading were led by Danny Carter with 20 points.

The other two EBL sides though were not so competitive as the BBL sides showed their superiority.

Glasgow Rocks thrashed soon-to-be BBL side Leeds Carnegie 84-48 as the Scottish side breezed through, leading 17-9 after one period of play and never turning back.

Sterling Davis had 16 points to lead the Rocks.

Newcastle Eagles were untroubled as well, comfortably defeating Essex Leopards 101-73 in Brentwood.

Malik Cooke led the Eagles scoring with 28 points.

The other BBL Trophy games saw wins for the Manchester Giants, as they toppled Birmingham Knights 91-74. The Plymouth Raiders got the better of the Durham Wildcats 90-81 and another shock saw League and Cup champions Leicester Riders get knocked out by the Cheshire Phoenix 86-78.

Reggie Middleton led the red hot Phoenix with 32 points.

Leicester’s weekend was made worse 24 hours earlier when they suffered a rare 78-73 home loss in the league to the London Lions.

The Lions showed great team spirit as they came from behind to defeat the champions as they suffered back-to-back losses since winning the BBL Cup a week ago.

Rod Brown had 23 points in victory for Lions.

Newcastle Eagles escaped their home court with a narrow, but thrilling 103-100 win over the Cheshire Phoenix.

A game-high 39 points from Reggie Middleton ended up not being enough as Charles Smith posted 37 points and 10 rebounds for the hosts as they stayed in contention at the top of the BBL table.

Exit mobile version