You’ve Got To Love It – When A Plan Comes Together

People who follow me on twitter and facebook will know that I have been looking forward to this weekend for weeks. It was to start on Friday night with my regular trip over the pennines to Sheffield where the Sharks were to take on the Cheshire Jets.

The Sharks were coming in 2 and 1 and were feeling good. The Jets, however were reeling from the news that Calvin Davis needed a major operation on his damaged ankle and could be out for months rather than weeks.

Well the Sharks got it done and moved to 3 and 1 and to joint top of the BBL with the Eagles who were having a weekend off.

Saturday, and the Sharks were on the road to the London Capital. I had another appointment and that was with Leeds Carnegie who were taking on the Manchester Magic in Leeds.

What a fantastic game this was as Manchester got off to an early lead only for the hometown boys to pull it right back.

In the end it would be Manchester who would get the victory but I’ve got a feeling that Jeff Jones and his boys know that they had been in a game.

The stars for Manchester were Kimbrough and Gill who were simply stunning. For Leeds Adrian Fenyn had a breakout game while there was excellent support from Margai. Later that evening the news came through that The Sharks had defeated the Capital and were now sitting proudly on top of the BBL with a record of 4 and 1. Having picked up that loss at Leicester on their first outing of the new season, they are now on a 4 game winning streak.

And so it was to game 3 of my triple header weekend. The Tigers were taking on the unbeaten Guildford Heat in their first home game of the new season. As if that was not enough the game was to take place at the fabulous Echo Arena in Liverpool. Now I hadn’t seen either team yet this season but they had both been making news over the past few weeks.

Following the departure of Head Coach Paul James, the Heat appointed Chad McKnight and he had got the team off to a great start in the BBL. They were coming in with a 2 and 0 record; one of only two teams who were unbeaten in the BBL. (The other is of course Newcastle Eagles).

The Tigers had been making news of a different kind with all kinds of rumours surrounding the organisation. Head Coach Tony Garbelotto had been with Great Britain in Poland during the summer and would seem to have started the recruitment process a little late; but recruit he did.

Tony has managed to get the signatures of some of the best English talent around. He has retained James Jones, Olu Babalola and veteran, Chris Haslam from last season and added the awesome Dzaflo Larkai, former Manchester Magic’s Andrew Thompson and Darrell Bethune plus Kevin Bell from the USA.

There are, I am told, still a couple more Americans and a Spaniard to join the team.

As the teams warmed up we got the news that there was to be a 10 minute delay to allow extra time for the crowds to get in. As the first whistle went there was a nice crowd in the Echo Arena and it immediately looked like the Tigers were going to be in for a long night.

Player Coach Chad McKnight was, to put it mildly, on fire. At the end of the first he would lead all scorers with 11 points including 2 from beyond the arc.

For the Tigers Larkai had 7 points and 4 rebounds while James Jones had hit 2 from beyond the arc for his 6 points. The score at the end of the first was 22 to the Tigers and 17 to the Heat.

The large crowd at the Echo were rather subdued and it was the visiting fans who could be heard pushing the Heat forward.

In the second quarter the scores would almost exactly mirror the first as the Heat took it 22 – 16 to go into the locker room with a 1 point advantage 39 – 38. Chad McKnight had moved on to 13 points while Mike Martin began to get the job done and he had 12 points and 5 rebounds. For the Tigers, Bell had 10 while Larkai moved on to 13 and now had 8 boards.

It was in this second quarter that Kenny Langhorne picked up, what looked like a serious injury and had to be helped off the court. The Tigers were advancing the ball and Chris Haslam set a monster pick and Langhorne ran into what must have felt like a brick wall. He had medical treatment on the floor before going to the bench and then to the locker room. He seemed to have damaged the shoulder of his shooting arm.

Langhorne would return to the game later.

At the end of the third the scoreline was 65 – 63 and nobody but nobody knew which way this one was going to go.

At the half Langhorne had had 5 points and was 0 for 2 from the arc when he went to the locker room with his injury. Back on the floor at the start of the third, he soon nailed two monster threes. As the first of those nestled beautifully into the basket, one Everton fan in the crowd could be heard shouting…Nothing wrong with that shoulder now, is there?

Oh that killer Merseyside humour!

From here on in this was a monster game and a monster event. The Everton crowd finally found their voices and the atmosphere was terrific. Kevin Bell of the Tigers would begin to take control and the Heat really had no answer other than to foul him. He would end the game going 11 for 15 from the freethrow line. The Tigers team would shoot just 17 for 27.

From the stripe the Heat were even worse going 16 for 29.

There were some great performances in this game led perhaps by BBL legend Mike Martin who went 11 for 15 from the field for his game high 25 points, plus 10 rebounds. He got excellent support from player coach Chad McKnight with 16 including 3 from the arc, and 11 a piece from Langhorne, Drakeford and Julius Joseph.

But nothing was going to stop the Everton Tigers from taking this game. The Tigers had used the Echo Arena on three previous occasions and had failed to record a victory on this floor. Today was going to be different as Tony Garbelotto’s guys came together to tough out a massive victory. The scoring was led by Kevin Bell with 24 and Dzaflo Larkai with a double double of 21 points and 18 rebounds, 12 of which were on the offensive end…Oh BABY

The Tigers killed the Heat on the boards 53 – 37 and much of that was about Larkai. In my opinion we could have a British star on our hands.

Having said all that the Tigers would not have won this game without James Jones who finished with 17 points including 5 for 9 from the arc, plus 4 assists.

My favourite play of the game was a beautiful pick set by Chris Haslam…no not that one. This one was outside the arc at the offensive end. James Jones was handling the ball but was very well defended and could not get space for his shot. Up pops Haslam who set the pick allowing Jones to simply roll around his body make the space and nail the three.

In commentary I suggested that Haslam deserved an assist for that but unfortunately the rules of stats don’t recognise that as an assist.

The final score was 85 to the Tigers and 79 to the Heat. The Tigers have now picked up their first win of the new season and, at the same time, handed the Heat their first loss.

Both of these teams had spells in this game that they could be proud of but the better team won on this occasion. The pick and roll basketball in the paint involving Larkai was a joy to see.

The Everton Tigers were one of the teams to beat last season with some real stars on the floor. However, Coach Garbelotto believes that this season’s crop of players are actually better than last time out.

Unbelievably he could well be right.

This was a great game with great entertainment.

All’n’all it was just what the Tigers organization needed.

You have got to love it when a plan comes together.

Later

Mike S