Another Weekend & Three More Great Games

The Tigers are the Cup holders having destroyed the Plymouth Raiders at the NIA Birmingham last January. The MVP of that game was Andre Smith although there was another amazing performance on the night by Marcus Bailey.

Well there is no Andre Smith and no Marcus Bailey in the Tiger’s line-up any more, nor is there a Richard Midgley or a Josh Gross.

Only Chris Haslam, James Jones and Olu Babalola survive from the last campaign and new names have been added to try and take the team forward.

Perhaps the biggest signing of the close season for the Tigers was GB international Dzaflo Larkai while Andrew Thompson, Kevin Bell and Jerome gumbs have also been added.

Unfortunately for the Tigers Larkai is on the injured list and would take no part in this game. The Sharks were also missing their big man Matt Gorman.

Predicting sporting scores is a thankless task and it is one of the reasons I do not bet on the outcome of sporting events.

Had I been a betting man I would have predicted that this would be a one-sided affair in favour of the Sharks.

The Tigers have had a mixed start to the season and I saw them defeat the Guildford Heat at the Echo Arena, then lose to the Jets at the Northgate Arena.

To say this game got off to a slow start is putting it mildly.

After 4 minutes the Sharks got their first score as Atiba Lyons got one from the line. That made the score Sharks 1 Tigers 2. For a moment I thought I might have been at a football game.

Things would pick up and we would end the quarter 17-19 with the visiting Tigers having the two point lead. Jerome Gumbs had been putting up some big numbers for the Tigers but the Sharks defence was holding him in check.

To be fair the Tigers defence was holding Sharks leading score Mike Cook quiet as well. At the quarter he had only 2 points. The Tigers fans were loving this.

Into the second stanza and Cook began to bring his game for the Sharks as he quietly moved on to 15 points. Tafari Toney had moved on to 11 and player/coach Atiba Lyons had a solid 8.

For the Tigers Bell had 10 while Babalola had 9 and Gumbs 7. The score at the half was Sharks 40 Tigers 36.

A James Jones triple early in the third would tie the game 42 a piece and the Sharks fans were now getting a little nervous. At 48 a piece, Ryan Patton, who was having a quiet shooting night, nailed a three only for James Jones to answer at the other end.

At the end of the third the score was 60-64 with the Tigers holding the slender lead. Mike Cook had dried up and he was getting fustrated with the officials as he didn’t feel he was getting the calls he deserved.

Late in the third Atiba benched Cook and it was probably the best thing for him. His talking back to the officials was undoubtedly about to get him a T.

What that benching did however was to give him a solid rest to prepare both physically and mentally for the remainder of this extraordinary game.

Incredibly we were tied at 75 and then again at 77 and going into the final seconds of regulation the Sharks led by three points 80-77 with fouls to give.

Babalola had the ball in his hand and got the shot off from outside the arc. As the ball nestled into the basket the game clock expired.

OVERTIME!!!

The visiting fans were ecstatic whilst the home fans were suddenly quiet. Mike Cook ended the third with 29 points but there would be more. The three from Babalola took him to 19 personal for the Tigers.

The overtime period was all about the Sharks and about Mike Cook who scored one outrageous triple off the backboard while off balance. It was that kind of performance.

He would finish the game with 41.

When his score had got to 33, I ran out of space on my scoring programme and had to start a new column called ‘Mike Cook continued’. That is something that had never happened before.

The final score was 99 to the Sharks and 90 to the Tigers. There will be a new name on the BBL Cup for 2010.

This had been another amazing BBL encounter and the star was without doubt the awesome Mike Cook but the play of the game for me was a Todd Cauthorn block shot when all seemed lost.

It looked like an easy lay-up for the Tigers until Todd took off and blocked the shot from behind. Oh BABY!!!. That kinda said it all about the 9/10 Sharks.

And so to Game 2 of this weekend; I am at Leeds Carnegie where I would be commentating on two games as part of their Day of Basketball.

Game 1 had already taken place and the D3 team went down to Manchester Magic. The first for me would be Leeds Carnegie Women taking on Barking Abbey.

I have to admit I didn’t know much about Barking but I did recognise their Head Coach, the former GB Women’s Coach Mark Clark and I did also recoginse GB star Harriett Yea.

As we prepared for the game the Head Coach of Leeds Carnegie, James Bambury pointed out Barking number 4, Natalie Stafford who he said was the leading scorer in the league. As the game progressed it was easy to see why.

Well what a game this was. Awesome just doesn’t do it justice. There were stunning performances all over the floor and none more than Carnegies’ Loui Hall. She was unstoppable down low and and would finish the game with 32 points plus a bucketfull of rebounds.

When Keesha Tate picked up her second foul in the first quarter she had to sit and Ray Khalil and Dee Hayward had to do the ball handling duties. They did not disappoint.

Stef Jones hit some big points in the 2nd quarter but the whole game was about Hall for Carnegie and Stafford for Barking. Stafford was awesome in this game and went for 29.

The score at the end of the first was 17-24 in favour of Barking. At the half it was 45-39 as Jones, Hall and Hayward went to work.

At the end of the 3rd it was now comfortable for Leeds as they took the score out to 72-49, and this game was over but wait it was now that Barking would get going. Christina Gaskin would add 6 as did Jamila Thompson while Stafford added 9 but it just wasn’t enough as the home team ran out comfortable winners by a score-line of 87-71.

This was a magnificent performance by the Carnegie girls led by the 32 points from Hall and 15 from the ‘ever so smooth’ Keesha Tate, 11 of which came in the 3rd. Jo Clayden had 11 points and it was good to see that she was OK after going down hard in this one.

There were some other magnificent performances in the game but one of the best was, in my opinion, Charlotte Levitt. Levitt is one of those players who does the dirty work at both ends of the floor, grabbing rebounds, setting screens and running the floor. She had 7 points and had also dished up a number of glorious assists.

This win keeps Carnegie in 2nd position the league with a record of 5 & 0. Top of the league is UWIC Archers who are 6 & 1 but as you can see, they have 1 in the loss column. A loss which came last week at the hands of … wait for it … Leeds Carnegie … Oh BABY!

And so onto Game 3 of this Day of Basketball at Leeds Carnegie and in this one the Carnegie Men will entertain the Taunton Tigers in this EBL Div 1 Men’s game.

Having seen Carnegie play a number of times now, I did not think the Tigers were going to trouble them but trouble them they did. The Tigers controlled the game for long periods but could not break away from Leeds.

It has to be said that this was a most strange Carnegie performance. Ladi Brown had a quiet night as did big man Mike Medved. Between them they would total just 7 points. Carnegie would have to look to other parts of the team if they were going to win this one.

Leeds started with Supola, Margai, Fenyn, Brown and Medved while the Tigers opened up with Andrews, Yabsley, Clifford, Rickwood and Page.

The man of the moment for Leeds in this one was Adrian Fenyn. Fenyn is what we would call a warrior. He turns up every night and always puts in a solid performance. He would score the first 10 points for Leeds while Rickwood, Andrews and Page were keeping Taunton in this one.

At the end of the 1st the score was 18 to Leeds and 21 to Taunton. Also important to note was the fact that Leeds had already accumulated 8 fouls while Taunton had 5. The refs were calling this one tight. Of their 21 points Taunton had made 10 from the line.

At the end of the first Fenyn had 12 points.

Into the second and now Chris Page of Taunton would step up and would hit 9 in this quarter including 1 triple while it was Leeds’ turn to go to the line.

Of their 19 points in the second, 11 would be from the line. The score at the half was 37 to Leeds and 39 to Taunton. Win or lose Carnegie would know that they had been in a ball game.

Impressing also for Taunton was ball handler Tim Clifford while Alistair Bird came off the bench and nailed a monster three. He did not bother the scorers again.

Into the third and other names would now come to the fore as Istvan Herceg would nail two triples and Medved would finally get on the scoresheet with a triple of his own. Carnegie would make 4 triples in the 3rd while Taunton just kept hanging in there from the field and from the line. Carnegie would edge the 3rd 59-57.

And into the final stanza and Taunton Tigers head Coach Tom Kambouris must have thought his guys were handily placed to go on and steal this one but it was not be be. Carnegie finally started to play some defence and Fenyn again went to work at the offensive end. This time there was help from Albert Margai and Tom Ward.

Taunton tried their best but when Chris page (24 points) picked up fouls number 4 and 5 this one was over. Page had scored his 23rd and 24th points to tie the score 71 a piece but from here it was all Carnegie.

The final score was 87 to Leeds and 73 to Taunton Tigers.

Congratulations must go to the Tigers who gave Leeds a real scare but the boys from Carnegie hung tough and got this one in the bag. Fenyn led all scorers with 27 while Supola had 10. Every other Leeds player with the exception of Max Smith (DNP) got on to the score sheet.

For Taunton, Page was top with 24 while Tim Clifford had 15. The impressive Andrews had 12 and Rickwood added 10.

And that rounded up another great Day of Basketball at Leeds Carnegie and both the senior Men’s and Women’s teams adding another notch in their win column.

Head Coaches Matt Newby and James Bambury should be well proud of the job that they are doing.

On this day the Women won with style while the Men had to tough it out.

It is a well known fact that there are numerous ways of winning basketball games and Leeds’ Carnegie Men are having to find new ways of getting the job done. Fortunately they seem to have the weapons to seriously compete in EBL Div 1 .

Later

Mike S