| Glasgow Rocks | 86 |
| Guildford Heat | 75 |
The Scottish Rocks lost their second championship game of the weekend 73-85 to a strong Everton Tigers. Coming off the back of a defeat at Sheffield on Friday the Rocks were slow out of the blocks and Everton capitalised stunning the home crowd with their sharp shooting.
Tigers, looking to eat into Newcastle’s six point lead at the head of the BBL, soon were on top in Glasgow. A 2-14 start to the match with 10 from James Jones who continued his excellent weekend put them in control.
Threes from Gareth Murray and Rob Yanders helped Rocks stem the tide but Tigers still held a 15-21 lead after ten minutes.
Marcus Bailey and Andre Smith were instrumental in Everton building up a big half time advantage. Between them they scored 16 of Tigers’ 22 points in a run which saw the visitors go ahead 28-43.
The other eight points scored in the quarter were threes from Jones and Chuck Evans and two Tony Dorsey free throws to give Tigers a 30-45 half time margin.
After Bailey had given Tigers a 17 point lead at 35-52 the Rocks spent the rest of the third quarter gradually closing the gap. Will Johnson’s six points and a Marc Pratt three did most damage as the home side moved to 48-55.
Tigers regrouped behind Smith and Olu Babalola to keep a double-digit lead at 56-66 with ten minutes remaining.
A 5-0 run by Rocks brought Sterling Davis’s team back to 61-66 but it was a close as they’d get as Smith and Babalola combined for a 9-0 burst to put Tigers 14 in front (61-75) with 4.10 left in the match.
Babalola finished a 6-0 run later in the quarter to make it 66-83 as Everton cruised to their second victory this weekend.
Posted on 08 March, 2009
