BBL Weekend Round Up

Champions Newcastle Eagles continued their perfect start to the season with a pair of road wins. The Eagles were made to work hard by the Manchester Giants on Friday but came away from Wright Robinson College with a 91-82-victory as Joe Chapman and Charles Smith each scored 20 points for the visitors who did most of the hard work in the second quarter.

Sunday saw Newcastle Eagles produced a fine fourth quarter against derby rivals, Glasgow Rocks, to spoil the party at the Emirates Arena, which was witnessing BBL basketball for the first time. The Eagles silenced the big home crowd with a sensational display to ride out 106-84 winners and disappoint the Rocks who had Great Britain forward Kieron Achara in their line-up as Charles Smith again haunted his former team with 31 points.

London Lions tasted success in both the BBL Cup and BBL Championship as the third weekend of the new season produced some thrilling finishes.

Vince Macaulay’s side went into the weekend still searching for their first win of the campaign with a 95-91 victory over the Surrey Heat on Friday before progressing to Cup quarter-finals with a dramatic 79-76 win against Durham Wildcats at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders also kept up their unbeaten start to the campaign as they swept aside Manchester Giants 105-74 with another powerful performance, this time headlined by Colin O’Reilly. The Irish forward produced a terrific display with 28 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and three steals to keep his team unbeaten.

There was drama at Surrey Sports Park as Surrey Heat bounced back from their Friday night loss in London with a nail-biting 71-69 victory over Worcester Wolves as Chavis Holmes scored in the last second to send the home fans into raptures. Holmes grabbed 19 points, seven rebounds and four steals while Sam Cricelli had a fine double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Finally, Cheshire Jets chalked up their first success of the new season with an 88-64 derby victory against Mersey Tigers. Gabriele Haskins posted an efficient 17 points for Jets whilst Gael Hulson was the only player to reach double figures for the losing team with an impressive 19 points on debut.