BBL Trophy Comes To A Head

Having already secured a valuable 74-60 success in the semi-final first-leg at Cheshire Phoenix, you could hardly blame One Health Sharks Sheffield for thinking they already have one leg in the Final and can start thinking about stepping out at the Emirates Arena ahead of tonight’s second leg.

But, Andrew Bridge (pictured) has vast experience from his many campaigns bidding successfully for silverware as captain of Newcastle Eagles, and he isn’t taking anything for granted after recalling plenty of huge momentum swings in previous semi-final ties.

“It’s not done yet” insisted the Chesterfield born guard. I’ve been in situations where we’ve been up by 23 after the first leg and lost the second by 22 points, so anything can happen. We need to stay focused, have a good preparation and we’ll see how it turns out.”

If Sharks do kill off the tie and make the most of their first-leg advantage tonight, they would go up against either Worcester Wolves or Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders in Glasgow.

Both clubs will face each other twice in the space of 24 hours with the first leg taking place at Worcester tonight and the return leg tomorrow evening.

And, Riders’ head coach Rob Paternostro is looking forward to his players having some serious backing from the fans in both games, in what is a mouth-watering double header.

“I’m sure we will get great support in Worcester on Friday, and I’m pretty confident that the John Sanford will be rocking on Saturday” claimed the play-caller.

His opposite number Paul James was handed the Molten BBL Coach of the Month for February earlier this week, having guided his team through the month unbeaten – a feat matched by Paternostro.

And, James rejects any notion that playing the same team twice in as many days, as well as the two-leg nature of the tie will affect his coaching style.

“It doesn’t change anything – it’s just a longer form of the game” smiled the coach.

“The first half is played at Worcester and the second at Leicester, but safe to say, this is a massive weekend for the Wolves and maybe the most important in this organisation’s history!”

In addition to the BBL Trophy semi-finals, there are also four BBL Championship games taking place across the weekend.

There’s a potential mismatch tonight when second placed Newcastle Eagles hit the road and attempt to join leaders Leicester on 40 points by safely negotiating their way past still winless Mersey Tigers.

The other three games all take place on Sunday, with Durham Wildcats out to take revenge when they entertain Glasgow Rocks for the second time in the space of a fortnight. Having suffered a heavy defeat in their last match-up, they need to use this loss to motivate themselves to get the win since they are in danger of losing ground in the play-off race.

Rocks’ versatile forward Andrew Wedemire is expecting a backlash and prepared for a big challenge.

He claimed “They have been giving a lot of teams some really hard games and Bucci is the main guy since he puts everything together for them.

“We played really good team defence and got out in transition last time, but we still must work on consistent movement on the offensive end.”

Seventh placed London Lions have established some daylight between themselves and the play-off chasing pack in recent weeks. Now, Vince Macaulay and his Lions players have the chance to move to 12 wins and continue their mini winning streak, when they host One Health Sharks Sheffield.

Meanwhile in the final game of the weekend, Cheshire Phoenix welcome Surrey Heat to Northgate Arena on Sunday evening, with both teams desperately needing a victory. Phoenix will want to continue their play-off bid by taking their number of league wins into double-digits, whilst the previously excellent season for Heat is in danger of coming away at the seams.

Enjoy the games!

Story – BBL

Photos – MPhotography