BBL Championship Game 2010

There is a saying that every cloud has a sliver lining and I can definitely vouch for that. I remember hearing the news that the Sheffield Sharks had been beaten on the road at Glasgow which meant that mikeshaft.com Joint MVPs Mike Cook and Tafari Toney would not be playing in the Championship Game at Birmingham but it meant that they would both be available for the BBL All Star Game which also takes place at the NIA as a prelude to the Main Event.

As the whistle blew to start the All Star Game it was a joy to see the line-ups kitted out in some of the best uniforms I have seen outside the NBA. I hope that some of our BBL teams do deals to get these uniforms into the BBL next time out.

The line-up was Great Britain versus the rest of the World and from the outset it was difficult to see how the Brits would live with the ROW. Yes Tafari Toney and Darius Defoe were there along with Yorick Williams & Stephen Gayle and the rest. But they would have to face Reggie Jackson, Joe Chapman, Jerrah Young, LaTaryl Williams and the aforementioned BBL MVP Mike Cook. Also in the line-up was late addition Lynard Stewart.

The sides were coached by Rob Paternostro for the ROW and Gary Stronach for the Great Britain boys.

Well the whistle blew and the first play saw Mike Cook make an awesome alley oop pass for LaTaryl Williams to throw down.

From here it simply got better and better. At the end of the 1st the ROW led by 1, 26-25 but in the second they were outscored by GB 21-31 making the score at the half 47-56 in favour of GB. Tafari Toney showed why he is one of the most exciting players on the planet. For people who didn’t see him regularly in Sheffield last season, this is how he plays the game. He was without doubt the star of the GB team.

In the third quarter however things started to heat up as Mike Cook got going again, as did the Newcastle pairing of Reggie Jackson and Joe Chapman.

It is fascinating that everyone knows that an All Star game is supposed to be just a bit of fun but for players of this calibre a bit of fun is ok but we don not intend to lose this game. If there was any doubt in the players mind there was no doubt in the mind of Coach Paternostro.

It was intense as the ROW began to pull away. Tafari continued to get his but the ROW were simply too strong. Every player got a good run out and the crowd got great entertainment.

The final score was 110 to the Rest of the World and 94 to Great Britain.

Mike Cook secured the MVP with a stat line of 31 points 7 rebounds 5 assists and 1 steal. His Sharks counterpart Tafari Toney led for the ROW with his regular double double of 23 points and 11 rebounds.

I don’t know about anybody else but I thoroughly enjoyed this game and I would like to pay tribute to all the players who made it such fun. The only disappointment for me was the size of the crowd. Perhaps, in the publicity, we needed to make more of the fact that the entertainment started at 3:30 so that people came for this game as well and not just for the Championship game which had a fantastic crowd but which started at 6pm.

And so after the entertainment, presentations and a minutes applause for some of the basketball individuals who passed away in the last few months, the stage was set for the Big one. The 2010 BBL Championship Game! This game would see firm favourites Everton Tigers taking on the Glasgow Rocks.

Both teams had taken the hard road to the final with the Rocks having to get past the Sheffield Sharks who finished runners up in the BBL League while the Tigers had an even bigger job getting past the BBL Champions Newcastle Eagles. The Rocks had finished in 3rd place giving then home court advantage while the Tigers would finish in 5th place behind the Cheshire Jets.

The Tigers had won one trophy in their short existence, lifting the BBL Cup in the 08/09 season. In that game they destroyed the Plymouth Raiders and in this Championship Game they started as if they were going to do the same to the Glasgow Rocks.

In the first quarter the Tigers would give up just 9 points while scoring 23 of their own. It was as one sided as one sided could be. The Rocks were shooting 22% from the field. OUCH! They had taken 9 attempts from outside the arc and had yet to make one. Double OUCH!

The Tigers on the other hand were shooting 67% and had already made a couple of triples.

It would be easy to think that it could not get any worst than this for the Rocks but to be honest it did. They had increased their shooting percentage to 30% from the field and they had managed to score 19 points in the 2nd but out of 15 attempts from beyond the arc they had scored a great big 0.

The Tigers on the other hand went about their business taking their score out to 45 with Trey Moore nailing 3 from beyond the arc in his game high 15 points. His backcourt partner Kevin Bell was even more impressive with 10 points and 3 assists. He had not missed a shot as yet. Inside for the Tigers Olu Babalola was going about his business with 9 points

The score at the half was 45-28 … in favour of the Tigers…as if you needed telling.

The third was a somewhat different story as the Rocks finally found their game and began to put a run together. Jessie Sapp landed a couple of triples but they were now 2 for 19 from downtown…triple OUCH! However they were beginning to accumulate points from elsewhere.

Jessie had 14 with good support from Sterling Davis and Mike Copeland with 10 a piece and Rob Yanders with 9. The Tigers were beginning to panic and would be out scored 25 to 11 in this stanza. The score at the end of the 3rd was 56 to the Tigers and 53 to the Rocks. Suddenly we had a ball game on our hands. Despite this fightback the Rocks had still not led this game.

So into the 4th and could the question was Rocks actually cause an upset and steal this one from the Tigers.

And in this one the Rocks actually took a slender 1 point lead but they could not hold on to it as Coach Garbelotto got his guys refocused on the job in hand. His back court pairing OF Moore and Bell were not going to be denied. They would finish the game with 40 of the teams 80m between them. They would go 7 for 14 from beyond the arc.

Trey Moore would finish with 22 points 5 rebounds 2 assists and 1 steal. Kevin Bell would finish with 18 points 4 rebounds 4 assists and 4 steals. This all round performance would secure him the MVP honours. James Jones would finish with 15 and 5 while Olu Babalola would chip in with 11and 7.

For the Rocks, Rob Yanders would lead with 15 while Copeland would add 14 and 8. Davis and Sapp would both pull down 11 boards to go with their 11 and 14 points respectively.

The final score was 80 to the Tigers and 72 to the Rocks.

The Tigers would lift their second piece of Silverware in only their third year in existence, in fact rumour has it that there are to only professional sports team on Merseyside to win any Silverware this season.

Congratulations to the management, coaches, team and fans on a fantastic win and an awesome performance.

At the end of the game BBL legend Chris Haslam announced his retirement from the game. In his first season in the BBL back in 1998 he won the BBL Championship with the Birmingham Bullets. Now to round off a fantastic career he was invited up with Captain Olu Babalola to lift another BBL Championship.

Somehow this seemed the perfect ending to another perfect Basketball day.

Later

Mike S