Nix preserve fourth-place hopes alive; Lions go down combating in 7Days EuroCup

7Days EuroCup
Membership Joventut Badalona 89-78 London Lions (19-12, 20-19, 25-27, 25-20)
Badalona – Tomic 16, Ellenson 14, Feliz/Man 13; Lions – Zubcic 19, Finest 18, Taylor 14

BBL Championship
Cheshire Phoenix 105-81 Surrey Scorchers (28-21, 34-27, 23-22, 20-11)
Phoenix – Austin 25, Archibald 21, Jack 17; Scorchers – Metal 17, Lawrence 13, Carey/McFolley 11

The London Lions made a valiant run to 7Days EuroCup playoffs this season, but it surely drew to a detailed with a 89-78 loss to Joventut Badalona in Spain.

With Sam Dekker hobbled, Tomislav Zubcic led the BBL facet, who fought till the top of a bodily sport, but it surely wasn’t sufficient to beat a high seed and undergo to the following stage.

In the meantime, BBL competitors continued on home soil as Cheshire Phoenix relied on sturdy house assist to carry off a robust third quarter cost from the Surrey Scorchers and declare a 105-81 victory. 

Sturdy defence slowed the guests to Cheshire Oaks Enviornment, however Larry Austin stuffed up the stat sheet for the house staff with 25 factors, 9 rebounds and 12 assists.

Joventut Badalona scored 9 unanswered factors earlier than the London Lions received on the scoresheet to start out the primary spherical of the playoffs on the Palau Olimpic De Badalona.

It was a pair of free throws from London’s Tomislav Zubcic, which was quickly adopted by Jordan Taylor that received the scoring going

Sam Dekker was the primary BBL participant to attain a area objective, which was a full court docket drive into the center of the Spanish defence – typical aggressive play from the very best scorer in Europe.

Nonetheless struggling from the sphere, the Lions turned up their very own defence by staying at house on Badalona’s three-point shooters.

This meant Joventut huge man Joel Parra was in an advantageous place to seize offensive rebounds. The house crowd received behind this and it resulted in a Andres Feliz three to go up 15-6.

Miye Oni received a dunk for the Lions after his full-court defence that pestered the ball away from Ante Tomic. Oni adopted this up with a 3, and the primary quarter closed 19-12.

Every staff traded baskets to start out the second quarter however the house staff adjusted to the defensive ideas of the guests. 

Badalona’s Kyle Man began attacking the rim and was rewarded with factors and foul pictures. It put his staff up 10 mid-way by way of the body, which quickly expanded to 16.

Henry Ellenson was known as for an unsportsmanlike foul for Joventut, after the large man spun into Taylor’s face along with his elbow. This wiped off a made basket, and despatched Taylor to the free throw line.

The Lions then stored the ball and ran a properly executed out-of-timeout possession that noticed Luke Nelson assault the lane and kick out to Taylor for 3 on the perimeter, closing London’s deficit to simply 39-31 on the half.

Physicality from the primary half carried over into the opening couple of minutes of the third quarter.

Badalona stripped the ball from London’s Aaron Finest, who scrapped to get the ball again and fouled Feliz within the course of.

Feliz and Finest went backwards and forwards once more: Joventut’s guard hit a floater on a reduce by way of the lane. And Finest received the higher of his opponent by reducing backdoor and getting a straightforward layup.

The Lions hardly dedicated a foul within the second quarter, however they opened the third with 5 within the first 5 minutes, together with an offensive foul on Sharma that grew to become a technical.

It felt just like the momentum was with London offensively, however the Badalona free throws stored them forward, they usually entered the ultimate 10 minutes with the house staff up 64-58.

The Lions zoned up however Joventut’s Ante Tomic reduce by way of the center of the lane and located Ellenson within the dunker’s spot for a layup.

Tomic then received his personal bucket by receiving the ball on the high of the important thing and driving to get the rating and the foul.

This modified London’s ways right into a full-court entice. They stole it for a Dekker dunk on the primary event, and one other steal led to a different Dekker dunk, however he landed gingerly.

The hole was reduce to eight by Taylor, however Badalona scored back-to-back and Lions coach Ryan Schmidt pulled Dekker with practically 4 minutes to go.

London continued to battle, however they couldn’t shut the hole to lower than 9 within the closing minutes.

It drew an amazing 7Days EuroCup marketing campaign to an finish for the Lions, who have been knocked out within the first spherical of the playoffs.

On the Cheshire Oaks Enviornment in BBL Championship motion, Amorie Archibald made a giant early impression for the house staff.

He scored seven factors within the first 5 minutes for the Cheshire Phoenix, together with a troublesome acrobatic layup.

Boban Jacdonmi got here in for the Surrey Scorchers and made an instantaneous impression, getting an assisted layup as quickly as he entered the sport. 

He then adopted up a miss with considered one of his signature offensive rebound put-backs that began a comeback after a sluggish begin. Regardless of this, Cheshire completed the opening body up 28-21.

The primary couple of minutes of the second quarter was all Marcus Evans – he hit three threes, and the remainder of the staff adopted his lead.

Larry Austin additionally scored from lengthy distance, however they have been all assisted by numerous Phoenix gamers, who have been placing on an amazing exhibition of coach Ben Thomas’ drive-and-kick offence.

It was additionally a robust defensive effort by Cheshire. They made passing inside troublesome by tipping or delaying entry.

A couple of of them resulted in steals for Austin and Jamell Anderson. The latter resulted in an early look within the paint for David Ulph – and Cheshire have been up by 21 factors.

Scorchers coach Lloyd Gardner known as a timeout to handle the deficit, and this awoke Josh Metal. 

He scored eight factors within the closing two minutes to cut back the deficit to 14 earlier than the halftime buzzer, which went off with the scoreboard at 62-48.

The defensive depth carried over into the second half for Cheshire. Anderson received an enormous block that created an Austin layup.

Anderson’s lengthy arms tipped the ball away from the passing lane the following time down, which received Maceo Jack an open dunk that pushed the lead again as much as 20.

Josh McFolley led a third-quarter comeback for Surrey. With three minutes to go, he adopted up a layup with a fast steal and one other play on the basket.

He then discovered Metal on the perimeter for a 3, and managed one other help to Kyle Carey that reduce the Scorchers’ deficit to 10.

Extra thievery helped Cheshire push their lead again up – first Austin after which Ulph – however even after they weren’t stealing it, the house staff have been getting stops and scored each time on offence.

When the ball bobbled to Archibald for a defensive rebound, the lane opened up for him to make an end-to-end run that led to a layup, which put Cheshire up by 25, and it reached 29 by the top of the sport.

The win retains the race for fourth a good affair, and Cheshire will face a troublesome job in the event that they wish to preserve hopes alive of securing it by travelling to Bristol on Friday to face the Flyers.

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