Sharks and Giants Get It On Again!

It’s a key game for both sides as they look to seal a place in the post-season. Both teams have eight victories but Sheffield have played two less games (21) and are in eighth place, while Giants are one of three sides tied in ninth. The game will also decide who wins the head-to-head tiebreaker if the teams finish level at the end of the season. Home court advantage has proved key in the two Championship meetings between the teams, with Giants running out 99-87 winners in the second weekend of the season before Sharks won 87-68 at the end of December. The sides also met in the BBL Trophy, with Sharks winning 85-73 on the road.

Sharks forward Andrew Bridge is ready for a tough game on Friday: “We’ve done pretty well against them recently, though obviously they beat us at the start of the season. But they’re a changed team from them, and from talking to people they’re playing differently. Mike Bernard’s making more of an impact, and we all know what Nick [George] can do as he was with us for ten days during pre-season. He a good player and he’s had a positive impact on what they do. It’ll be a tough game, last time we played them in Sheffield we blew them away, but it won’t be that easy this time.

“It’s hard to know who I’ll be guarding, they play a lot of guys on the perimeter, and you’ve got to credit Jeff [Jones] because if a player is doing well, he keeps playing him. At some teams players play regardless of whether they’re delivering, but with Giants you never know who will play 25-30 minutes on any given night.”

Sharks put up a fighting performance before going down 72-51 at BBL Cup winners Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders on Sunday, much to Bridge’s disappointment:

“I’ve got mixed emotions about it. We played really well for the first 28 minutes and matched them well which is a sign of how far we’ve come. We were right in it then we had a really bad two minutes and they pushed it out to ten points at the final break. We again matched them at the start of the fourth but as we chased the game we started to give up easy baskets. They deserved to win, but we were right there with them.

“Ultimately, though, we lost the game and while it’s good that we’ve improved, at some point we need to get a win against a top team. Our confidence is better, and our defence has always been there, but again we held a team to around 70 points but lost by a big margin.”

Giants bounced back after the previous week’s loss against Worcester Wolves to beat Surrey Heat on Friday, and guard Stefan Gill admitted it was a much-needed victory: “We finally got a win, and as a team we showed a lot more heart than in the previous week against Worcester. We owed the fans and ourselves a better performance than that. We had a lack of hunger against Wolves, and I’ve said before if you’re not playing this game with heart, I wonder why you’re doing it. We had a long talk after the Worcester game and we changed our attitude.

“I hope we can have a little run now, it’s more about us mentally than our ability. None of our fixtures are easy, but if we apply ourselves there’s no reason why we can’t have a run of wins.”

Gill knows what to expect from the Sharks: “We’ve played them twice, and their guards are good and both Mike Tuck and Olu [Babalola] are always consistent. Match-up wise they’re similar to us with a couple of good shooters and we can’t just look to stop one or two guys. We need to watch them all over the floor.”

Giants coach Jeff Jones wants an improved performance from when the sides met twice over the New Year period: “BJ Holmes certainly impressed me and Demetrius Jemison was effective. He reminded me of a smaller version of Richie Gordon from Worcester last year, a good athlete and very active. For us we had guys who had spurts where they played at a decent level but it wasn’t consistent enough. Our concentration and aggressiveness never really matched theirs.

“Obviously we have to make adjustments and do some things differently this but the main thing will be getting our mental approach right for the game on Friday.”

Sharks’ guard Colin Sing will celebrate his 24th birthday on Friday.

This encounter will be streamed on The New SUNSET Radio from 7:20 tonight.

Story – BBL

Photo Mike Bernard – Jack Hinds

Photo Andrew Bridge – MPhotography

Photo David Aliu – Russell Hart Photography