British Basketball League champions Newcastle Eagles and BBL Trophy winners Worcester Wolves will contest the final of the Playoffs after coming through their semi-finals in contrasting ways.
Leicester Riders 90-79 Newcastle Eagles (1st leg)
Newcastle Eagles 83-71 Leicester Riders, AOT (2nd leg)
Newcastle win 162-161 on aggregate
Newcastle Eagles erased an 11-point deficit to sneak through by a single point over the two games against the Leicester Riders in one of the most thrilling contests in BBL memory.
It had started so brightly for last season’s treble-winning Riders as they led 90-79 from the first leg thanks to 25 points from Jay Couisnard. Leicester seemingly had Newcastle there for the taking as both teams headed to Newcastle for the return fixture.
The Eagles, who lost out to the Riders in January’s BBL Cup final had other ideas though. They beat Leicester on all three of their league meetings this season and instantly went to work, closing the gap on their rivals in the second leg, who were slow to get out of the blocks.
The Riders were aided in the end by Rashad Hassan and GB international Andrew Sullivan as they evened the tie up on aggregate and it sent the game into overtime. Newcastle though had enough in them to get the job done in the extra period, as Jay Calvo’s three-point attempt missed its intended target. Malik Cooke grabbed the defensive board and hung on to the ball to see the clock out.
Darius Defoe led the Eagles with 20 points.
Sheffield Sharks 59-79 Worcester Wolves (1st leg)
Worcester Wolves 67-60 Sheffield Sharks (2nd leg)
Worcester win 146-109 on aggregate
Worcester Wolves made light work of the Sheffield Sharks, comfortably beating them over two legs to set up the finale against Newcastle at Wembley.
The Wolves got off to a lightening fast start in the first leg as they raced out to a 20-12 lead in the first, on the back of a 10-0 run and after the first ten minutes, led 26-16.
Sheffield from there were unable to find an answer to Worcester’s offensive threats. Alex Owumi led all scorers with 28 points as his side enjoyed a 20-point cushion for the second leg.
The Sharks though made a game of it in the first half of the second leg tie. They led by as many as 15 points at one stage but it was the closest they got, as Worcester held the visitors at bay to claim a comfortable win on aggregate.
Will Creekmore led Worcester with 17 points.
