Cheshire 106 Durham Wildcats 72

Forget the ongoing off-court issues, what the Cheshire side are doing on court is having repercussions throughout its fan base after another home victory, this time against Durham Wildcats, 106-72.

Starting fives:

Cheshire: Brandreth, Myers, Haskins, Marks, Bland

Durham: Page, Guinane, Baldarelli, Bucci, Keister

Bouncing back from a disappointing performance against Newcastle Eagles, and despite an early scare in the first five minutes of the game, with Cheshire facing a ten point deficit at 10-20, the introduction of former Wildcat, Chris Pearce, scoring seven points of the nine point run, helped bring the home side back in to contention.

A tight second quarter was edged out only by a last second bucket from Phil Brandreth and meant Cheshire would go in to the half 44-42 up.

Nine points from Cheshire straight after the break helped put the fan christened “Phoenix” up by eleven, and despite flashes from Durham, the onslaught from Cheshire was continuous and consistent finishing the third quarter ahead by 18, at 72-54.

With a 34-18 final quarter, and the first time Cheshire had reached triple digits all season, it was a wholly joyous moment for all the home supporters to take in, including a surprise appearance on court from head coach Matt Lloyd late in the game.

Speaking after the game, Lloyd said: “It was a lot more comfortable than our last home game. We had a tough loss on Friday which made us really kick ourselves ready for today so we came out, we were up by two at half time, third quarter we came out and outscored them massively so that was a good bonus.”

It seemed an extremely impressive performance, considering it was almost a 35 minute showing, after a calculated gamble to make a time out so early in the game: “We took an early time out in the first which was a risk but it was one we had to take to re-motivate the guys, switch things up tactically and reiterate our points from before the game.

“Our priority as players and coaches is to just concentrate on getting the wins at the end of the day and for the work of everyone else who’s involved in getting us away from the BBL control, they’re doing a fantastic job and that’s supporting us to help create W’s and if we combine like that then hopefully we’ll be able to secure the club at the end of this week.

“My minutes were unexpected. I said before the game to Andy [Green] I might get on, I set a target of 20 points, that gradually stretched out to 25, then to 30 and then I thought it was the right time to go on.

“It was good, it rolled back the days,” said Lloyd, who despite not conforming to the rest of his side with a double digit score, did pick up a rebound, “I haven’t played for three or four seasons and it was fun to get out there.”

Scorers

Cheshire: Marks (26), Bland (20), Haskins/Myers (14)

Durham: Keister (19), Guinane (16), Baldarelli (13)

Play of the game

The fast break, started from Chez Marks, to Phil Brandreth, who played a well timed pass to Gabe Haskins to begin the real Cheshire performance after the first time out called.

Game MVP

Gabe Haskins (14 pts, 10 assts, 5rbs, 63% shooting)

Next up

Cheshire: Mersey Tigers (Away) 30th November

Durham: Sheffield Sharks (Home) 2nd December