Sharks wait for opponents goes on

Friday 15th November 2019

BBL Cup North Group

Glasgow Rocks (Pryor 34 Murray 30 Bunyan 14) 101 B. Braun Sheffield Sharks (Lewis 22 McKnight 18 Koch 11) 81

The B. Braun Sharks must wait until Wednesday to find out who their Quarter Final opponents are after going down by 101-81 in their final group stage game on the road in Glasgow. The defeat sees the Sharks finish second in the group and they will match up against the third placed team from the South group at Ponds Forge on Sunday December 1st.

Starting Fives

Rocks: Murray, Fraser, Pryor, Rinkunas, Djo Ebala.

Sharks: Lewis, Cashaw, Marsden, McKnight, Koch.

Key Moments

The first quarter was a little slow to get going but Nick Lewis soon went ‘full-Westbrook’ with eleven points in the stanza. The Rocks, playing for their livelihoods after seeing two players depart this week, fought back strongly however and retook the lead through Djo-Ebala at 11-10. A pair of Bennett Koch free throws put the Sharks up by 19-20 but a Pryor three pointer gave Glasgow a 22-20 lead after ten minutes.

An accurate shooting display saw Glasgow take a twelve point lead on Bunyan’s corner trey at 37-25. The Sharks entered penalty with nearly five minutes still to play in the quarter as another Bunyan triple capped an 18-0 run at 42-25. A pair of Mackey McKnight ‘and one’ plays attempted to keep the Sharks in the contest and despite Mike Tuck’s late bucket, it was Glasgow who maintained a 49-35 lead at half time.

An outrageous contested three from Nick Lewis saw the Sharks pull to within ten at 58-48 but that was as good as it got as Pryor and Murray for the Rocks began to shoot the lights out. Murray’s trey at the end of the third saw it conclude at 74-58.

The GB vet saw the difference out to twenty at 85-65 from the corner and fellow long-time Rock Bunyan emphasised the shooting display with the score at 95-73. Bouna Ndiaye concluded the scoring for the evening at 101-81; Glasgow taking the win on the back of a combined 64 points from the on-fire Pryor and Murray.

MVP

Three Sharks scored eleven points each, namely being Bennett Koch, Mike Tuck and Bouna Ndiaye. The Sharks main scoring threats came from the backcourt once again. Mackey McKnight took matters into his own hands at times but was unable to influence the score on his own despite recording 18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal. Taking the overall honours once more, albeit in different circumstances, was Nick Lewis. He got hot early in the contest and looked ‘the man most likely to’ on his way to 22 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals. His form will be crucial to the Sharks in the days, weeks and months to come in their quest for glory.

Next home game

B. Braun Sharks v To Be Confirmed (BBL Cup Quarter Final), Sunday 1st December 2019, Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, 4pm Tip Off

Ticket Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bbl-cup-quarter-final-tickets-80366944695

Image

Andy Chubb