Great games at every level

Congratulations also to the England Women’s Cricket team who won the World Cup in Australia defeating New Zealand in the final. It has been brilliant to see all the media coverage of these and other events happening across the globe.

The news that the IPL is moving out of India for the first time is also a major event to those of us who follow such things.

Over the last few days I have witnessed some astonishing sport myself. Not much media to talk about but BBC Radio Leicester was at the EISS Sheffield for the first of these.

On Friday night there were three significant games in the BBL.

The top two in the BBL, the Eagles and the Tigers were both playing against lower opposition and neither had any problem in disposing of their opponents.

However at the EISS in Sheffield it was an altogether different affair.

The Leicester Riders are having a fantastic season and are re-living their halcyon days of 2001 when they won two trophies under the tutelage of the legendary, and one of my favourite coaches, Billy Mims.

Billy led the team to BBL Cup success and then on to Championship success after finishing 7th in that years’ BBL.

In a sense the Tigers are doing better this year under Head Coach Rob Paternostro, than in 2001 as they currently sit in 4th place and are desperately trying to secure home-court advantage for the post season Play-Offs.

The Sharks on the other hand are in 9th place in the BBL just outside the Play-Off positions.

In an earlier piece I wrote about the difficulty teams will have as injuries take their toll, and the Tigers arrived with two of their star players in their walking clothes.

Neither Bradd Wierbicke nor Phil Missere would take any part in this game. The Sharks were missing Marshall Brown who had returned to the US for personal reasons. He is scheduled to return soon.

Well what a game it was; the first action saw Tommy Swanson of the Riders foul Chris Sanders who scored the two from the line, Perry Lawson then nails a triple and we are at 5-0. When Flinder Boyd got the And 1 against Atiba Lyons the score would be 7-5 but from here it is all Sharks and we would finish the quarter with the home team leading 23-9.

James Whyte had scored two threes to lead all scorers while Sherman Rivers and Chris Sanders had 5 a piece. All of Sanders’ points had come from the free-throw line. The Sharks had already nailed 4 three pointers.

The second quarter and it was more Sharks. They were stroking it from everywhere and two monster plays by Todd Cauthorn, in for Marshall Brown, really sparked the team. His second score took the score to 36-17 in favour of the Sharks. Sherman Rivers was having his way with the Riders. At the end of the 3rd it was a 12 point ball game with the Sharks leading 37-25.

The new man for the Riders Duane James was slowly getting into it but was having to fight hard to get good looks.

Rivers had 12 points to lead all scorers while James had 11. The Riders were shooting 33% from the field on 10 for 30 while the Sharks were shooting 42%, going 11 for 32.

Significantly the Sharks had nailed 5 from the arc compared to the Riders 2.

The 3rd quarter belonged to the Riders as Swanson, Williams and the previously mentioned James began to find their range. They would win the quarter 24-15 and at the break it was a 3 point affair 52-49.

You could feel the tension in the air.

In days of old this season the Sharks would capitulate and come second but these new Sharks are made of sterner stuff. Matt Gorman was awesome draining 12 points assisted by Whyte with 8 and Sanders with 5. Duane James did his best to keep the Riders in this one but in the end it was a comfortable victory for the home team by a score of 83-63. James would finish with a game high 23 points, closely followed by Gorman with 22.

This was a cracking night for the home crowd and a great atmosphere at the EISS greatly enhanced by a huge and noisy travelling support for the Riders.

Less than 24 hours later I am at Leeds Carnegie as their Division 4 team had a Quarter Final game against Stockport Falcons.

This truly was a game of 2 halves and to quote the legendary Glenn Hardaker at half time, Paul Cantwell of the Falcons was a “one-man wrecking crew.”

This was a performance to behold and it was only bettered by the defensive performance in the second half by Leon Gabbidon.

The Falcons led by as many as 9 in the game and again the large home crowd was as tense as could be and the small visiting crowd were the ones making the noise.

At the half Paul Cantwell had 26 points including 4 from beyond the arc. To put it mildly he was unstoppable.
If he could continue this performance in the second half there would be just one winner and it would not be Leeds. The score at the half was 37-45 in favour of Stockport. The Leeds scoring was right across the team and Head Coach Matt Newby must have been delighted with the performance but disappointed by the score.

To win this one he would have to stop Cantwell.

And stop Cantwell he did. The man deputed to do it was Leon Gabbidon who would allow Cantwell just 2 points in the second half. With Cantwell closed down the contest swung to the home team who would run out winners by a scoreline of 65-59.

This had been two fabulous games of basketball in less than 24 hours and as far as I am concerned the quality of game being delivered at all levels of our sport has to be seen to be believed.

Eventually, I am sure the media will catch up.

Later

Mike S