Jets end Wolves season and advance to final four
Cheshire Jets were able to overcome the odds and reach the semi-finals of the BBL Playoffs with an 87-77 (167-157 agg.) victory against Worcester Wolves on Sunday evening.
After the previous evening’s rare draw, it was all to play for, and the game certainly lived up to its billing.
Rather than the previous night’s nervous start, we were straight into the action as Cheshire took a commanding lead five minutes into the quarter 17-10. As it seemed like deja vu for a good portion on the game, Worcester slowly began to peg the Jets back after two points from Bill Cole saw an 8-0 run swing the lead back to Wolves, however a late charge from the Jets, including a late three from Kai Williams gave a 26-23 lead to the home side.
The second quarter saw Cheshire again take control of the game, pushing a lead out to an 11 point gap (44-33) at one stage. Despite this, some key decisions in not building up a lead through indecisive shot selection opened the door wide to Wolves to get back into contention. A 7-0 run, finished with a three pointer from Tommy Freeman, was fortunately, for the Jets, halted with the break for half-time, but as with the previous night, it was only a small lead going into the locker rooms, 44-40.
After the interval, there was renewed vigour from the home side as normal service was seemingly resumed, the lead was stretched to nine points (52-43), and Worcester were looking towards imploding as their foul count began to rack up. However, yet again similarities to the first leg were not yet over and done with. Cole missed two shots from the free throw line and within the blink of an eye, the Jets themselves were on the high side of fouls committed in the quarter and a nine point lead had vanished – to be replaced with being a single point down.
Worcester were the team to hit five fouls first, after a quarter where Adam Brown was very much the target of some extremely rough treatment up and down the court – a significant amount not brought to attention by the officials may it be said – it gave a possible opportunity to Cheshire, but no, Sherrad Prezzie-Blue was on had with a big three shortly accompanied by a basket from Freeman that saw Wolves in front at the end of a period of play for the first time in the game, 58-60.
It seemed on a parallel to the first leg and nerves were frayed in the Northgate, but one thing that was to happen in this game was that Cheshire were about to have their missing final quarter.
Without doubt, the best ten minutes of basketball to have been played out at the Northgate for many a game was to unfold. As the Jets once again pulled out to a nine point lead, only to have it clawed back again, thanks to big outside shooting from Prezzie-Blue and Freeman, the latter bringing the ball game to just one point 72-71. Richie Gordon picked up fifth foul and Colin O’Reilly converted both from the line, before Prezzie-Blue once more made it count with another three to tie the game. Surely not again for a second night in a row?
No, is the simple answer. Cheshire began a stirring final couple of minutes which saw great tenacity both ends of the court, determined rebounding and working the ball well between each other – it all paid off as Brown and Matt Schneck went to work. Two, then four, five, eight and then a ten point lead had built, 84-74. The home crowd were in rapture as the semi-finals beckoned, but even a final three pointer from Freeman could not generate enough for Wolves to get back into the game. Too many fouls and not enough time, as Brown and Cole went to the line again late on, three out of four converted, and sealing one of the most exciting games this season in Chester, and a semi-final match-up against Newcastle Eagles.
Colin O’Reilly bagged himself a second double-double for the weekend including being top scorer for Cheshire with 22, also Freeman picked up the same total for his Wolves side. Brown and Schneck closely followed O’Reilly which showed the points are really stacking up now with top scorer chopping and changing most games.
Despite such a fantastic run of form leading up to the playoffs, many still regard Cheshire to be going out on court already on the back foot, but what does coach Lavery think of this?
“We come out as an underdog but we played hard for 80 minutes over the two legs and every one of those guys in that locker room has done a god job. Even the guys who didn’t get on court, it’s about what they put in in practice every week to get us to where we want to be tonight and we’re pretty proud of what we’ve put over the last two days.”
“Last time we played the Wolves here they turned us over by 30 points, this time we’ve come away with a 10 point victory. It could have been a little bit more, we switched off a couple of times during the game but we have a never-say-die attitude, we never give up, we keep on pushing everybody and the players keep pushing themselves and their team-mates to achieve what we want to do.”
The loss of Matt Schneck for most of the first leg may have made the overall tie easier, however Lavery needed a performance out of his big man in the middle: “I said to Matt: ‘You owe me one from last night. You’ve got to come out and play hard.’ and to be fair, the guy was outstanding tonight. He had the better of Richie Gordon tonight who, in my opinion, will finish runner-up in the MVP of the league, so Matt stepped up big time tonight and did a really great job as all the guys did. It was a team performance and all the guys came out and did a really good job.”
The treatment of Adam Brown in the third quarter was somewhat unjust and Wolves did a job on Jets’ top scorer so far this season, hoping to try and unsettle him: “Adam is having an absolutely fantastic couple of months. The guy had 31 points last night and they probably thought he was the man to stop but we have so many weapons on the floor, any of my guys can put 20 or 30 points up on the scoreboard on any given night.”
As progress towards the playoff final continues, the all important question was if Lavery still was intent on getting a new hairdo? “If we go to the final, if we win the final, John Lavery will come out with a Mohawk.”
Take that as a possible yes, but the Jets fans won’t care if silverware beckons!
Cheshire Jets: 26, 44, 58, 87
Worcester Wolves: 23, 40, 60, 77
Jets: O’Reilly (22), Brown (21), Schneck (19)
Wolves: Freeman (22), Prezzie-Blue (19), Gordon (14)
