PREVIEW: Sharks out to extinguish Phoenix flames

BBL Championship

A big January of basketball action continues on Friday for the B. Braun Sheffield Sharks when Cheshire Phoenix visit Ponds Forge for the latest BBL Championship fixture. The ‘Nix currently sit in eighth in the table with a 3-7 record but have a winning streak over the Sharks that stretches back some eight games in all competitions.

Friday – Sharks v Phoenix – Ponds Forge – 7.30pm

Tickets – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/b-braun-sheffield-sharks-v-cheshire-phoenix-bbl-championship-tickets-221364335687

Special Offer January Fridays 2 games for £20 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/january-fridays-package-fri-14th-21st-tickets-223822909347

Ones To Watch

Teddy Okereafor – Phoenix captain and GB consecutive appearance record holder, the influential point guard led the Cheshire scoring with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in their mammoth 123-64 win over Falkirk Fury in the BBL Trophy.

Namon Wright – The former Leicester Rider averages 17 points per game in the Championship this season and contributed the same number of points in Cheshire’s last league outing – an 80-76 defeat to their north west rivals, Manchester Giants.

Larry Austin – Made his debut against the Sharks back in November and has gone on to demonstrate his all-round game with 14.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game since then.

Michael Ochereobia – Big man with considerable BBL experience. Pulls down 8.4 rebounds per game and shoots at a tidy 55% from the field.

Last Meeting

November 21^st 2021 – Cheshire Phoenix (Wright 21 Okereafor / Austin 12) 86 B. Braun Sheffield Sharks (Anderson / Nichols 11 Williams / Glasgow Jr 10) 67

Shark Bites

The last Sharks win over the Phoenix came on 29^th September 2019 after which Cheshire have been successful in 5 Championship and 3 Cup fixtures.

Friday’s game marks the 126^th encounter between the two teams, just shy of the 128 games the Sharks have played against both Leicester and Newcastle.

The Sharks winning percentage over Cheshire is 61.6%. The Sharks have 100% winning records over Durham Wildcats, Essex Pirates, London United, Birmingham Knights, Coventry Crusaders, Teesside Mohawks, Reading Rockets, Derby Trailblazers and Manchester Magic.

The last time either the Sharks or the Phoenix lost to the other when scoring 84 or more was on 30^th October 2015, when the Sharks triumphed by 97-86 – a run of 20 games.

SharkNation

Everyone likes a January sale right? If you want to attend this Friday’s game against Cheshire and next Friday’s (against Bristol) for the bargain price of £20, head to the ticket link at the top of this page! We think you’ll agree our new signing Devante Wallace looked very exciting last week against the Giants – another week of practice in the bag and good things are guaranteed to happen! So get down to the Tank and bring the noise – we’ve got some Phoenix flames we need to extinguish! Let’s go Sharks!

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Adam Bates