Jets record first home win
Cheshire Jets secured their first home win of the season with an 85-78 victory against Glasgow Rocks at the Northgate Arena in the BBL Championship.
The home side did just about enough in the first three quarters to see out the final ten minutes, as the Rocks, with ex-Jet Gareth Murray back in their squad, doing everything they could to turn round a 15 point deficit.
The opening score for the Rocks was in fact all they would see of the lead, a full 22 seconds worth to be precise, as Cheshire, still smarting from Saturday’s close away defeat against new BBL side Durham Wildcats.
It was end to end play in the first quarter, as points were traded between the two teams, but the Jets were always ahead thanks in part to a great points rally by forward Bill Cole and guard Adam Brown. A late rally by Glasgow, including a big three pointer from Murray hauled them to trail by one, 24-23, however captain Colin O’Reilly posted four late points (one field, two free throws) to take a 28-23 lead.
Cheshire saw their lead stretched to eight points shortly after the start of what was a fast paced second quarter. The Rocks pulled themselves back to four at 35-31, before a huge 12-0 run by the home side gave the Northgate something to shout about. Trading free throws, Harrison for the Rocks sealed a final two points before half-time to make it 49-35.
It was again more of the same once they returned to the court for the third quarter, and Cheshire opened up a 20-point gap at one stage; the period could have ended 17 points up for the Jets had it not been for Mychal Green stealing a last gasp basket, but it went 67-52 into the final quarter.
After the game Coach Lavery noted how a lot of his side played a full 80 minutes this weekend, and it began to show as Glasgow, in particular a certain Mr Murray, were not ready to be beaten.
Slowly but surely, the visitors began to edge their way back into the game with some strong dogged defence, and at 71-58, player-coach Sterling Davis pulled out a huge shot from outside of the arc that was cause for concern.
The Rocks suffered an injury to their star man at that point EJ Harrison, and forced themselves into foul trouble as Andrew Wedemire received a technical foul (his third foul at this point); O’Reilly duly converting the two free throws. Wedemire replied with a basket, before he was shortly sent on his way for making another two fouls in quick succession.
Despite this Gareth Murray began charging at his former side, going 8-3 (Murray-Jets) before Deaundre Cranston helped Glasgow bring the score to just six points. At this point both sides were in foul trouble, Davis also fouled out and as free throws were traded Green missed two vital attempts allowing Cheshire enough room to seal the game eventually 85-78.
Speaking with Coach Lavery after the game, although the burden of a home win has been lifted, it’s been a big task for his side: “It’s a win we’ll take, obviously it was pretty ugly out there at times. At the moment I’m asking a lot of these guys, some of them have gone 80 minutes back to back, so it was a fairly good job tonight. They hung on and I think fatigue took some of part of the game down the stretch but we’ve got that first league win at home.
Keeping the confidence and morale up, after suffering a loss on the back of two wins was paramount for Lavery: “We were very disappointed going to Durham last night coming away with a two point loss, we sat down before today’s game and said we have to just come out and play. We didn’t turn up yesterday at Durham and I said to the guys, every time you turn up and put one of these jerseys on you have to turn up and play.
“We work hard at practice, put everything right on the floor, looking at the stats in the first half, we turned the ball over once, yesterday we had 17 turnovers in the whole game, so we can cut the silly mistakes out, execute right down the stretch, execute what we’re running on the floor and we’ll be fine.”
“Some of them have just come out of college, they are 21 years of age, stepping up from college-ball to pro-ball is totally different, it has took a bit of time for these guys to realise that this game is a lot more physical than what college is, but I think they are managing it really well at the moment.”
Cheshire Jets: 28, 49, 67, 85
Glasgow Rocks: 23, 35, 52, 78
Jets: Brown (25), Cole (21), Schneck (18)
Rocks: Murray (20), Harrison (18), Green (14)
