Lions edge one step nearer to Championship with convincing win over Eagles

BBL Championship
London Lions 100-69 Newcastle Eagles (32-19, 24-23, 26-13, 18-14)
(Lions – Hruban 19, Nelson 17, Ward-Hibbert/Soluade 13; Eagles – Defoe 22, Johnson 15, Kennedy/Gordon 10)

In tonight’s BBL motion, league leaders London Lions welcomed playoff hopefuls Newcastle Eagles to the Copper Field, popping out on prime 100-69.

Vojtech Hruban led the Lions with 19 factors, adopted by Luke Nelson with 17.

Darius Defoe’s valiant effort with 22 factors was not sufficient for the Eagles to safe the win.

The sport began with London speeding to a 7-0 lead throughout the first two minutes, after Josh Ward-Hibbert drained the competition’s first three.

A few minutes later Miye Oni threw a ravishing cross to Josh Sharma for the alley-oop slam (13-6) – in one of many highlights of the match.

On the very subsequent play, Ward-Hibbert drove to the basket and dished it to his massive man for the two-handed dunk (15-6).

David Cohn made certain that Newcastle stayed inside touching distance when he hit a long-range triple to make it a two-possession sport (15-9).

He then grabbed the defensive board and threw a full-court cross to Justin Gordon for the large open dunk (15-11), forcing coach Schmidt right into a timeout.

The 2 sides then proceeded to trade baskets, earlier than Nelson stepped into the cross from Hruban and related from downtown, giving the hosts their first double-digit lead of the sport (31-19), simply earlier than the top of the primary quarter.

With the beginning of the second interval the Lions prolonged their result in 15 (34-19) when Hruban hit a mid-range jumper, after which to 17 when Nelson related from behind the arc as soon as extra (39-22).

London’s benefit reached its peak for the primary half when Jonathan Komagum made each his free throws, finishing a 7-0 run (41-22).

Midway by means of the quarter, coach Steutel instructed his group to change to a 3-2 zone following a timeout, which helped restrict their opponent’s scoring.

This enabled the Eagles to go on a 6-0 run and closed the hole to 10 (46-36), when Kyle Johnson grabbed the offensive rebound and laid the ball in.

As the primary half was drawing to an in depth, the Lions began to interrupt down the Newcastle zone and located some straightforward buckets.

Oni threw a bullet cross by means of the attention of the needle to a chopping Ward-Hibbert alongside the baseline, who completed for the straightforward two (51-36).

Oni then prolonged his group’s lead additional together with his first triple (56-39), with 30 seconds left earlier than halftime.

For the ultimate play of the half, Cohn stopped his dribble a great distance from the three-point line and seeing as nobody stepped as much as defend him, pulled up with a Hail Mary shot that hit nothing however internet and gave the Eagles some a lot wanted momentum heading to the locker rooms down 14 (56-42).

A few layups by Jordan Taylor and Tomislav Zubcic to start out the second half elevated London’s lead (60-42).

The Lions continued to maneuver the ball properly on offence and made it look straightforward when Zubcic discovered Oni with the bounce cross for the layup (65-48).

Defoe continued to do all he might to maintain his group within the sport, this time displaying his publish strikes and ending with a hook shot to scale back the distinction to fifteen (65-50) – bringing his complete as much as 20.

Because the quarter progressed nevertheless, the hosts began to take full management of the sport and introduced their result in its highest margin of twenty-two (72-50), when Hruban drained the three.

The Czech star then elevated it to 25 (76-51) with a layup, earlier than Nelson’s layup introduced it to 26 (78-52).

The Workforce GB guard then completed off the third quarter with one other straightforward layup (82-55), after Mo Soluade discovered him large open following a full-court cross.

Getting into the ultimate 10 minutes the end result had already been determined with the distinction at 27 factors, however Newcastle continued to struggle.

Sadly for the guests, London’s offence was simply an excessive amount of and so they continued to extend the lead, with Soluade connecting from downtown to make it a 30-point sport for the primary time (89-59) and forcing a Newcastle timeout.

Popping out of the timeout, the Lions determined to run a full-court press – one thing which they executed completely, resulting in an eight-second violation by the Eagles.

Hruban then elevated the hole additional to 33 (92-59), when he banked in a triple from the inbound play, with lower than a second left on the shot clock.

Newcastle continued to hustle and that allowed Jermel Kennedy to make the steal and dish it off to Gordon for the monster one-handed slam (92-61).

Sharma replied only a minute later together with his personal dunk, bringing the lead as much as 35 (96-61), which constituted the most important of the sport.

With this win the Lions transfer to a file of 26-3 and edge one step nearer to being topped champions, whereas the Eagles fall to 7-21 and nonetheless stay three wins behind the playoff spots.

To be sure you keep updated along with your favorite group and never miss any of the motion, click on HERE.