BBL Preview: Phoenix at Sharks – 27th September 2013

by UK American Sports Fans

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South Yorkshire hosts the opening match of the 2013/14 BBL Championship season for Sheffield Sharks, as they entertain Cheshire Phoenix in a visit to the EIS on Friday evening.

The club that began last term under one pseudonym and ended as the Phoenix have gone through even more changes in pre-season.

The Sharks already have some inside knowledge on one of the recruits of the returning Cheshire head coach of Phoenix, John Lavery; forward Masse Doumbe is a former team-mate of Patrick Horstmann at Northwood University.

“Masse is a great player, he came to Northwood as a good player but in our two years there he really developed his game to the next level. He had no weaknesses and is great at shooting, driving, posting up, rebounding and playing defense,” said Horstmann this week.

The news that Chris Pearce has left Cheshire Phoenix on the eve of the first game of the season, may for some be concerning, however, that decision had been made almost a week ago, and Phoenix travelled to face Surrey United without the player and came out with a comfortable 79-63 victory.

Lavery is happy that his side have come together well pre-season, despite having only had a full squad for just over a week, but things look positive having picked up three pre-season wins out of three, against progressively stronger sides in Sefton, Manchester Magic and the most recent in Surrey.

Sharks are also a man light with Brian Barbour’s departure, but Coach Lavery knows Sheffield can bring more to the floor: “I heard about Barbour returning home, but you don’t just look at one player who may make a team. You look at what else they have on their roster; Atiba [Lyons] has been quite acute in the transfer market this summer. They’ll go about eight-deep, but we’ll go about our business on court and hopefully come out with the win.”