MANCHESTER GIANTS 85
- 83 CHESHIRE PHOENIX
MANCHESTER GIANTS 85
Friday Night at Wright Robby, Saw the first visit of the Newly named Basketball Franchise the the League is running the Cheshire Phoenix, Formerly the Cheshire Jets. The Phoenix have done terrific considering they had gone bust for a few days under the previous Owner. They have had some good result too when you look at them.
And the previous encounter at the Northgate Arena in Chester was a very Close encounter being won with the last shot of the game as they ran out winners 83-81 on that Occasion the Phoenix. And Manchester promised they get there Revenge in the return game at the Wright Robinson Sports College.
The Giants came into this the Last Home game of 2012, on the back of a great win last week against Fellow Celler dwellers the Durham Wildcats, Running out as previously blogged 82-79 last Friday Night.
Cheshire themselves were coming into this game on a high too beating the Glasgow Rocks 90-79 last Sunday night.
So as the North West Derby Tipped Off, it was the Giants that was quickly away from the blocks as they went on a 10-4 run, thanks to the Great shooting by David "TINTIN" Watts. As he drained 3 3-Pointers and Ben Eaves continued his recent good form of late ,as he was driving hard to the basket taking it to the Phoenix Defence ,as they were struggling to deal with the speed and plays the Giants were performing.
As the home were slam dunking the ball in the basket with 2 stand out dunks with Watts flying to the basket and slammed it down hard to get the home crowd on it`s feet. And the 2nd one was a steal from Devan Bailey who broke away on a fast break with James Jones & Ben Eaves as they did fast passing which led to Bailey throwing it toward the basket for an Alley hoop and Eaves Dunked as he hung from the rim.
The Giants were fast breaking and Phoenix had no answer in the 1st Quarter on how to combat it, as the Quarter ended it was a 9pt lead to the Home team.
End of 1st Quarter: GIANTS 30 - 21 PHOENIX
The 2nd Quarter the Giants ran into Foul trouble early but was still driving to the hoop with Stefan Gill, Ben Eaves with some strong driving to the paint hard as they were dominating the game. Bernard had a couple of good baskets too as he looks to be getting more Match fit and leaner as the season has gone on.
The Home Side had opened up a 13pt lead at one stage, but after a TIMEOUT by the Cheshire coach, the talk seemed to wake them up and they came out a different side. And released Gabrielle Haskins as he started to launch 3pointers all over, from the 3 point line of even beyond the 3 pt line. Plus he scored a few Free throws too, as he looked to be dragging the Phoenix back into the game single handedly.
The Giants evenutally got back the Upper hand and managed to deal with the Cheshire threat and quell it as they got managed to extend the Halftime lead to a 6pt lead.
END OF 2ND QUARTER: GIANTS 44 - 38 PHOENIX
The Start of the 3rd quarter was much like the rest of the game, Giants in control and in no danger as Cheshire was struggling to make shots count on the scoreboard as they missed quite a lot but at the same So was Manchester too. Some were very easy shots that both sides in the 1st half was making but now they had both seemed to lose the ability to score baskets. As a period was basically which side was going to score first.
The rebounding game for the Giants was the first time at home that they were Rebounding excellently on both ends of the court. They were sweeping up the loose ball rebounds that was frequently occurring in the game. But Cheshire mid way through the Quarter started to launch a come back and this time it was last for the rest of the game. As the game went on, it became a very scrappy game indeed as players were fighting over the ball that was loose on the few occasions.
the lead was reduced to 2 pts near the end before a shot on the buzzer extended it to 4
END OF 3RD: GIANTS 65-61 PHOENIX
4th quarter was an Absolute barnburner! As 53 seconds into it came a Controversial incident. As the referee had told Jeff Jones the coach off for the Giants and pointing to the changing room to say he was Ejected from the game. But it was Mike Bernard who had spoke out of term to the Officials and therefore was given a Ejection from the game. So the Giants were missing their big man in the middle and also had put his team in trouble as he drawn a Technical on his side and so Haskins went to the line for 4 free throws and netted each one to put the the team level at 65 all!
From then on it became a classic, with both sides netting 3 Pointers of their own, The Giants were getting Bad calls from the refs and some soft and needless fouls too being called against them as well. The home fans weren`t thrilled at all with the Officials as call after call seem to be called against the Home side and was clearly frustrating the players.
As time was ticking down with 4mins to play, Cheshire for the first time in the game took the lead, and Giants with some good scrambling defense got the ball back and tied it back up again. The game was reaching the end with it Tantalisingly poised at 80 all. Cheshire looked to be the team to steal it late on as Manchester was stuttering along and Phoenix had found a Second Wind.
So with a min to play the Score was tied at 83 a piece, and after some good place Ben Eaves driven to the net and got the Basket and the FOUL more importantly. So he went to the line shot the winning point with 17.1 left in the game. Cheshire called a Time out straight after a Giants one, and so the play was stolen but went out of bounce and the Phoenix still had possession as did they go for the win with a 3pointer or tie and take it to OVERTIME with 2 points. They were smothered getting the 3pointer and so with Giants fan tense and nail biting, they had 2 chances to score as the first just missed running and dropping the other side of the net and the other was blocked and Aliu and Eaves were great in extinguishing the Phoenix effort as they got the ball clear and held on for Hard worked Win!
No comments:
Post a Comment