Another Slam Dunking Weekend

On paper this was going to be a one sided game with the Sharks at the top of the BBL League table and the Pirates anchored at the bottom with a record of 3 and 17.

In the Cup Final the Sharks played wonderful team basketball and were pretty much unstoppable for the first three quarters.

Well in this encounter the Sharks would start like a train with Tafari Toney awesome at both ends of the floor. Almighty dunks were the order of the day and so was his rebounding. Mike Cook, (quiet at the NIA) got back into his scoring stride and was a joy to see.

The first score would come from former Shark Randy George for the team from down south to take a 0-2 lead. They would never lead the ballgame again.

The score at the end of the first was 22 to the Sharks and 17 to the Pirates.

The leading scorer for the Sheffield outfit was Toney with 8 while Todd Cauthorn and Mike Cook had 5 a piece. For the Pirates Randy George had 6 including some beautiful fadeaways. One cad in the crowd was heard to shout out “you never did that when you played for us”. Well actually he did!

Into the second and Mike Cook began to get in the groove. He would score 10 including one triple and to be honest the Pirates found it difficult to stop him. The score at the half was 48-42. The visitors had done a good job hanging with the Sharks but TAP Toney was already on the verge of a double double with 10 and 9. Cook led all scorers with 15.

For the Pirates only George was in double figures with 10.

Into the third and the Pirates would run out of steam as the Sharks really got in the groove. The Sheffield boys would outscore Essex 24 to 13 to take the game beyond Tim Lewis’ men. The score at the end of the third was 55 – 72 in favour of the Sharks. Cook now had 21 while Toney had got his double double. Tanner Adu had 6 in this quarter to take his total to 14 to lead the Pirates.

Into the 4th and this was memorable for one play in particular. The Sharks were on a fast break with Ryan Patton leading the break with the ball, the defender, Adu was right there with him and instead of laying the ball up he left it in the lane for the trailing Tafari Toney. It was perfect as TAP took off from just inside the free throw line to come down on the basket with two hands. It was Awesome. In fact such was the ferocity of the dunk that the ring could not handle it. The springs were smashed to pieces.

A long delay ensued but in the end another basket was wheeled in and we were able to continue the game.

The Sharks would run out winners by 101-77.

The leading scorer was Cook with 28 points but the MVP performance belonged to Tafari Toney with 20 points 12 rebounds, 4 blocked shots and another broken basket.

Tanner Adu led for the Pirates with 22 assisted by George with 14 and Hunderth with 11.

Onto the second and final game of my weekend and that would be the top-of-the-table clash between Leeds Carnegie and Manchester Magic. The Magic had already defeated Carnegie twice this season in Cup games but this was to be the first match-up in EBL Div 1 this season.

The Magic were coming in on the back of a whupping at the hands of the BBL’s Worthing Thunder at the NIA as a warm up to the BBL Cup Final. Magic were missing their star player Brandon Kimbrough who is out for about another 4 weeks.

I think I must offer an apology at this point; In my write up last week I suggested that this could be one of the games of the season but I really should have insisted that you were there.

This truly was one of those games.

The first quarter was as tight as could be and we would end the 1st with a scoreline of 13 a piece. Davis Watts was stroking it for the Magic and had 6 points while starting guard for Carnegie Albert Margai had nailed one triple.

Into the second and it was now that Adrian Fenyn would go to work. He was monstrous with 9 points and a bucketful of rebounds. Gill with 6 points and Watts with 5 were keeping Manchester in this one but they still trailed at the half 35-30.

I think you know that I don’t like criticising referees and I am not go to but I will say that sometimes referees don’t realize what players can do these days. This was perfectly illustrated by a really poor call on an attempted block by Ladi Brown. From where I sat it was a clean block with Brown getting all ball and pinning it to the back board.

He was called for a foul and then said something to the official and was given an immediate technical. Between the foul (?) and the technical, the clock had expired so we ended the quarter with Gill scoring two from the line and opened up the third with Gill on the line again nailing another two and then it was possession to the Magic.

The third was more cat and mouse as Fenyn continued his good work and Zoltan Supola would now come to play and would go for 11 in this quarter. Truly, he was feeling it! For the Magic Gill continued his scoring with a monster triple while Watts added 6 and Houghton hit 2 triples in his 8. At the end of the 3rd the score was 59-49.

Carnegie had led by as many as 14 but Manchester were beginning to reel them in and the massive crowd was making a huge amount of noise for their team. The atmosphere was sensational.

Into the final quarter and fortunately I have the time and space to give you a blow by blow account. Tom Pearson opened the scoring to make the score 59-51, but Ladi Brown who was playing with an injury, would nail a triple to take it to 62-51. Gill then got back to back scores for Manchester to take it to 62-55. The ever dependable Siddal (a former Manchester player) then scores to make it 64-55 but fouled Gill next time down. Gill makes both from the line.

Fasbender then scores for Manchester followed by Gill to bring us to a three point game 64-61. The Carnegie crowd was getting nervous.

When Goldsbrough fouled Medved it would send him to the line for two. The nervous crowd waited with baited breath as Medved’s freethrow shooting had be pretty pants to this point. This time he makes both and the score is 66-61. Gill then gets 1 from the line followed by a 2 and the score is 66-64. When Houghton nailed a monster triple Manchester Magic would take the lead for the first time in a long time – 66-67. They had reeled Carnegie back from a 14 point lead. Stephan Gill then scores another 2 and it is now 66-69.

It would be easy to think that it was all over for Leeds Carnegie, but you would be wrong!

When Pearson fouled Ladi Brown, he would step up and nail them both and the score would be 68-69 in favour or the visitors. Albert Margai then sticks a two to give Leeds a 1 point lead. Margai then fouls Gill who steps up and … misses 1 but makes the other.

With 6 seconds or was it 10 to go, the scores were tied and Magic had the ball out of bounds under the Carnegie basket. A time out had been called and they had set something up.

Now I have a confession I do not know what happened next as Coach Matt Newby (I think) stepped into my line of sight.

I do know this, the next thing I saw was the ball being passed by a Carnegie player to Ladi Brown who makes the outlet to Zoltan Supola breaking left side. He takes aim and attempts the triple on the run off the glass…it is…GOOD.

The buzzer goes …the game is over…the crowd erupts…“CARNEGIE WIN THE BALLGAME”.

There is nothing left to say.

Mike S