Riders beat Sharks 97-86: Where Ayron Hardy became invincible
Two words to describe the Leicester Riders win over the Sheffield Sharks.
Ayron. Hardy.
Last week I overlooked his impressive statline due to the overall feeling of disappointment at losing to the Glasgow Rocks (who were deserved winners) and although that is incredibly unprofessional, I’m an emotional kind of guy so I write what I feel.
Which is why this week I am going to talk briefly about the Riders solid 97-86 win over the Sheffield Sharks and then gush about how good Ayron Hardy is.
So, to business:
The Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders needed a win on Saturday, plain and simple and it just so happened that they were facing a team in the One Health Sheffield Sharks who they had beaten twice already this season.
The Sharks had played the Riders close in their previous two encounters, narrowly losing the first game 99-94 before being edged out in the second, 74-64. So predicting the winner in Saturday’s battle was pointless.
In the first quarter, the Sharks early lead was surrendered when the Riders’ Connor Washington and Cameron Rundles drilled three pointers in the closing minute to give the home side a narrow five point advantage heading into the second quarter.
And from that point on, the Sharks did not regain the lead. Even when the score was cut to eight at 90-82 on a Patton three with 2:27 remaining in the game, the Riders closed out the game by hitting seven of their final eight free throws (18/22 on the night), an area that had previously haunted them.
The Sharks received good contributions from point guard Ryan Patton (23 and 7 assists) and Mike Tuck (21 and 7 rebounds) while for the Riders Sullivan received praise from Coach Paternostro for his selfless game (7 assists 0 turnovers). But if we’re talking about individuals, there were no better performances on the night than Ayron Hardy’s.
It’s rare in the game of basketball to need to talk more about an individual than the team but in Ayron Hardy’s case, this is one of those rare occasions.
Last week he racked up a quiet triple double of 13 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists which he managed to totally eclipse this week with a stunning line of: 20 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists. If there has been a more dominant performance in a BBL game please, let me know, because I don’t think there has been.
The best thing about his triple double is that he goes all ‘Derrick Rose’ when praise is heaped on him – he goes quiet, he goes humble and he talks team-mates. Could there be a more perfect player for your team?
Defensively he’s a lynchpin while offensively he’s a solid go-to player with an offensive efficiency that is through the roof as he leads the league in FG% at 67. Re-read that: He scores the basketball on 67% of his shots. That doesn’t happen in real life.
But maybe that explains him: He’s not real. He’s the video game character that I’ve long felt he played like, only, unlike the past when he would take over games for short periods at a time, he’s now doing it for entire games now.
Holy hell.
