Cheshire Jets 88 Mersey Tigers 64: BBL Championship
Cheshire Jets returned to the Northgate Arena for the first time this season, and in doing so, claimed an 88-64 victory over local rivals, Mersey Tigers.
As both teams took to court in the highly anticipated derby fixture, which featured a number of players with previous connections with the Jets, it was Alif Bland on his début that was making the crowd bewildered with an array of dunks on the Northgate hoops.
Gael Hulsen, brought in to bolster Mersey Tigers, was making most of the running for Tigers in the first quarter claiming nine of the 15 points that the visitors produced in during the stanza.
Once the second quarter begin, it was Mersey traffic all the way as they were able to double their tally within five minutes, thanks predominantly to Josh McGinn, who in 2010 was MVP of the Cheshire Jets Summer Camp, Osemwegie Eboigbe and Daniel Pilkington, tying up the game at 30-30.
A time-out by Jets’ player-coach, James Hamilton, soon made very clear to his squad that they needed to improve before half-time, and that response came just as quickly as the message delivered, regaining and stretching out a lead to 48-34 going into the locker room.
Coming out for the third quarter, and Cheshire were slightly the more dominant, particular in defence, allowing Tigers to pick up only eight points in the entire quarter. Shutting out the visitors meant the lead Jets had went out to 25 points going into the final ten minutes of the game.
With such a lead on the board, player-coach Hamilton gave some of his younger players a chance to build minutes on court, and to full effect. Jamal Tahraouri made an impact almost instantly, Adam Jones saw plenty of the ball, and David Thomas also had a chance to shine. However, Tigers valiantly played right until the end, effectively won the quarter, but not the match, as Pilkington hit a buzzer beating basket for the away side.
Despite Gael Hulsen (22) leading all scorers for Mersey, Cheshire can be happy to find four players all picking up double figures.
Cheshire Jets: Bland/Haskins (17), Moore (14), Marks (12)
Mersey Tigers: Hulsen (22), Bigley/McGinn (9), Pilkington (8)
