BBL basketball returns to Manchester for the first time in nearly a decade on Wednesday as Mersey Tigers face Newcastle Eagles in the BBL Trophy semi-final first leg.

The winner of the tie will face Guildford Heat on March 5 at the O2 in London, and the second leg of the semi-final takes place at Newcastle on Friday.

MANCHESTER BASKETBALL BACK IN THE DAY

The sides have already met in the two-leg BBL Cup final, with Tigers overturning a 97-90 defeat in the north east with a stunning 114-85 victory at Echo Arena to reach the title game. September's BBL Championship game between the teams also ended in a big Tigers victory as they hammered Eagles 80-58 in Liverpool.

It will be a homecoming for Tigers players Andy Thomson and James Jones who came through the Manchester Magic junior programme, and Jones can't wait to get into action at the Amaechi Centre: "I'm really looking forward to my first pro game in Manchester. It's where I play in the summer because Magic run an open gym, and although I don't want to jinx things, I'm used to the court.

He continued, "It'll be the first BBL game in Manchester for a long time, and they're doing us a big favour. Hopefully one day there will be a BBL team back in the city again."

Jones knows the threat that a Newcastle team who have won ten straight games pose to the Tigers, "You have to start with the three main scorers - Trey Moore, Joe Chapman and Charles Smith - but they have some really good complimentary players. Those three will score some points whatever you do, but you need to limit them, and stop the energy that the other players bring. Above all, we need to get back to playing the way we were when we knocked them out of the BBL Cup.

Says Jones, "Hopefully Nate [Reinking] will be back with us on Wednesday, but it might be a game-time decision".

Jones is excited about the prospect of playing at the O2, and also wants to put the BBL Cup final disappointment behind him: "Playing at the O2 is a real incentive to get to the final, and after our performance against Sheffield we want to the chance to put that behind us. We won't ever forget that performance, and want to make amends."

Tigers faced a double header against neighbours Cheshire Jets over the weekend, with each side winning on their opponent's court, and Jones was only partially happy with how Mersey played: "Personally I was terrible on Friday, and I think we're suffering from a bit of a cup hangover. We decided to play in the second half, and we probably should have won - although we didn't deserve to.

"It was a role reversal on Sunday. We were up by 17 at half-time, and had expended a lot of energy building that lead. Jets came back in the second half, but we hung on and it was good to get back to win.

Tigers' coach Tony Garbelotto admits that it was hard to lift his side after their loss in the BBL Cup final: "It was extremely hard. I don't think we will get over the loss any time soon. It was not losing that was the problem, it was the way we played and looked physically. It will take real character for these players, myself and staff to raise our level to over come this disappointment.

Eagles player-coach Fab Flournoy knows that facing the same side twice in three days brings different challenges for his team: "It will be an interesting challenge" he said. There will be little time between the games to make practice court adjustments so we will just have to try and adapt our in game strategies. Hopefully the numerous tough games we had earlier on in the season will help prepare us for that."

BBL Cup Final
Mersey Tigers 66 (10,25,46) (Aliu 21,Sullivan 17, Williams 8)
One Health Sharks Sheffield 93 (20,51,74) (Dagostino 35, Tuck 18, Babalola 14)

One Health Sharks Sheffield tore up the script as they swept aside BBL Championship leaders and pre-game favourites Mersey Tigers to cruise to a stunning 93-66 victory to retain the BBL Cup and claim the first piece of silverware of the season.

Leading the way for the Sharks was playmaker Steve Dagostino who lit up the NIA with some devastating and quite remarkable perimeter shooting. He was crowned MVP after breaking two Cup records by sinking eight triples on his way to a sensational 35 points.

Superb defensively, the Sharks nullified a surprisingly toothless Tigers offence which while naturally blunted by the absence of injured Great Britain star Nate Reinking, spluttered unconvincingly from tip to buzzer.

The Merseysiders endured a torrid time from the perimeter making only 2of 18 while time and time again hitting a brick wall inside as Sharks held firm in what was a memorable team performance.

As good as Dagostino was, perhaps the true catalyst of the Sharks performance was forward Mike Tuck who was hugely influential in the first half and especially during the second quarter.

Both sides started the contest smoothly enough with Andrew Sullivan and Paul Williams scoring four points each for their respective teams but the usually prolific Tigers quickly dried up.

In fact outside of Sullivan and Aliu, they had nothing on offer as Tigers managed only 8 points during the next nine minutes of action and were left reeling as Sharks doubled their total to lead 20-10 at the end of the first period.

Thing then went from bad to worse for Tigers in the second quarter and within 90 seconds, Tony Garbelotto had used up both of his time-outs for the half with his team 14 points behind and with problems at both ends of the court.

Nothing was dropping from downtown and his players were finding little space inside to exploit and trying to force the issue leading to turnovers and charging fouls being called. Defensively, Tigers were giving up far too much both inside and out.

Sharks could smell blood and in the run up to the break they kept their foot on the gas and led by Mike Tuck, stormed into a commanding 32-16 advantage. When Olu Babalola drained a triple against his former club it was 39-17 and the game was slipping away completely from Tigers, a fact underlined when Ryan Patton repeated the trick moments later.

As if to emphasis it wasn't to be their day, they headed into the locker room 51-26 behind having fouled Dagostino on the perimeter in the dying seconds after turning the ball over when they could have had the last shot.

The second half revival which some of the most optimistic of Tigers fans might have hoped for simply never materialised. In fact if anything, Sharks piled on the agony as Dagostino nonchalantly drained yet another three-pointer to put his team an eye popping 62-29 in front and effectively kill off any notion of a famous fight back by Tigers who made little impression in the third period.

They trailed 74-46 heading into the last quarter, and it was a ten minute period which was only ever realistically a countdown to the Sharks celebrating one of the most one-sided finals in memory and to their credit, one of the most impressive performances too.

One Health Sharks Sheffield 79 (16,38,57) (Patton 17, Babalola 15, Tuck 15)
Newcastle Eagles 112 (36,64,88) (Moore 37, Smith 26, Chapman 15)


The Newcastle Eagles made it five league wins in a row as they routed the One Health Sharks Sheffield - fellow title contenders - by 79-112at the EISS. The teams had previously been tied for fourth place in the BBL Championship table, and it's the second time that the Eagles have won in Sheffield this season. The Sharks have now lost their last two league games.

Trey Moore led Newcastle and was just one rebound away from a triple-double with 37 points, 11 assists and 9 boards, while Charles Smith had 26 points. The Eagles, who are unbeaten in the league since October, shot nearly 60% from three-point range as they were 14/24, with Smith scoring 7.

The Eagles set the tone from the outset as they raced into a 10-29 lead after seven minutes, following a 16-3 surge that was capped by a three-pointer from former Shark Andrew Bridge, and included 7 points from Smith. It was Moore who controlled the rest of the period, as he had 16 points and 5 assists in the first ten minutes - shooting 5/5 from the field and 2/2 from beyond the arc.

The visitors pushed the lead through twenty points with an early 7-1 run in the second stanza, including another three-pointer for Smith, and they reached the half century mark after just 13.02 on Moore's old-fashioned three-point play (24-50). The Sharks halted the surge with a 9-2 run, all scored by Paul Williams and Olu Babalola, before Bridge connected on another three which helped the Eagles see it through to half time, up 28-64 with Moore already on 26 points.

The Sharks struggled to eat into the deficit in the third quarter, as Smith hit two three-pointers, the second of which followed a Joe Chapman triple in a rapid 6-0 burst that made the lead 31 at 46-77. After another Smith triple made it 50-82, the hosts hit back as Ryan Patton made 6 straight points; but they still trailed 57-88 going into the fourth.

It would get no better for the Sharks in a free-scoring fourth quarter as the Eagles passed the century mark on Bridge's basket at 65-101 with 5.34 remaining. The lead peaked at 67-106 with 4.30 on the clock as the Eagles saw the game out.

Mersey Tigers continued to strengthen their grip on the BBL Championship with a hard fought home floor success against Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders who raced out of the blocks to give the home team an early scare.

The Riders rattled off the first ten points of the game which at 8-0 had resulted in Tigers play-caller Tony Garbelotto calling a time-out to address the false start made by his team.

A Nate Reinking free-throw broke their early drought but Riders opened up a double digit deficit at 14-3 before James Jones finally got his team rolling with a three-pointer.

Joseph Harris was certainly enjoying himself and he moved to 8 points for Riders when they went 16-6 in front to restore their ten point lead. However, Tigers posted a 9-0 run as centre Tafari Toney (pictured) started and finished the burst by the home team.

Harris stopped the rot in the last minute with a triple as the visitors clung on to their lead, albeit at a much reduced margin of 21-19.

It was Harris who continued his excellent work after the quarter break as he scored again to go 6 of 7 from the field but it was Tigers guard Perry Lawson who wrestled the initiative away.

He levelled the scores at 24-24 then handed his team their first lead of the game from outside at 27-25. The Tigers defence was turning the screw and kept Riders to just four points in four minutes although they showed composure again to go back in front at 33-31.

Ahead of half-time, the home team made their move and scored 12 of the last 14 points to leave the court 43-35 ahead.

When the teams emerged once more, Andrew Sullivan scored an early three and it was a sign of things to come as the Tigers began to dominate and effectively end the chances of the visitors.

They cruised into a 16 point lead with a powerful third quarter performance and while to their credit, Riders played hard until the final buzzer to reduce the deficit, the home team never looked like they were in any serious danger of giving up their lead.

Reinking kept his team relatively comfortable with some great shooting down the stretch as Tigers secured a weekend win double.

The first quarter saw both sides trading baskets before back-to-back three pointers from Steve Dagostino and Ryan Patton for the visitors helped them take the score out to 17-26 and despite the Jets bagging the final four points of the period the Sharks headed into the second quarter leading 21-26.

In the second period both teams continued to trade baskets, but the Sharks kept their noses in front throughout the quarter with some more impressive outside shooting from Patton taking the score out to 37-51 midway through the period. The visitors held off a resilient finish to the period from the home side to head into the locker rooms leading 45-57 at the half.

In the second half the Jets started the third quarter with a 12-2 burst to get right back into the game and trim the deficit to just two points at 57-59, but the Sharks, thanks in no small part to Patton (who seems to love the Northgate Arena), began to find their range from beyond the three-point arc as he bagged five three's in the third period to help the Sharks out to a 69-84 lead heading into the final stanza.

In the final quarter the Sharks continued to extend their lead and another three-pointer, this time from Olu Babalola, gave the Sharks their biggest lead of the game at 80-107 with less than a minute remaining.

The home side bagged the final five points of the game, but it was the Sharks who head into the second leg on Friday evening at the EISS, with a significant advantage.

Patton (pictured above) bagged a game-high 28 points for the visitors, including 8/14 from the arc, while Jeremy Bell led the scoring for the Jets with 26 points personal.

The Tigers went into the game with a seven point deficit and were buoyed by the fact that the Eagles were again without Fab Flournoy due to injury. Although in the early exchanges it was the visitors who edged ahead 9-5.

Within a couple of minutes the home side had found some offensive rhythm and an 8-2 run put them in front before successful free-throws by Charles Smith tied things up at 13-13 approaching the midway point of the opening period.

It was still level at 19-19 when Kadiri Richard threw down a dunk for the visitors and then with 44 seconds left, a triple by Andre Lockhart looked to have given the Eagles the upper hand at 24-22. However as Flournoy's men were soon to find out, Nate Reinking had other ideas and he scored four points to ensure the Tigers were 26-24 in front after the first quarter.

There was little between the teams during the second period and with 90 seconds left until the interval, a score by Richard levelled matters at 44-44.

Once again the Tigers had the last say in the period as Andrew Sullivan finished the scoring for the half with a dunk to put his new team 48-46 ahead as the team left the court.

Whatever was said in the Eagles locker room didn't work as the visitors imploded in embarrassing fashion during the third period.

They crumbled right from the restart and within three minutes were down by 9 points at 57-48 after a Reinking triple.

Two free-throws by Sullivan put Tigers 66-51 in front as the nightmare quarter continued to unfold for the Eagles and their misery was complete when a triple by David Aliu helped the home team to a 78-62 lead heading into the final ten minutes of action.

While the lead on the night was a commanding 16 points, Eagles fans will have been reminding themselves that it was only a ten point margin they needed to make up to get to yet another showpiece final,

However those dreams were soon in tatters as the hosts stretched their advantage to a commanding 20 point margin at 87-67 with the misfiring Eagles backcourt unable to match the production of Reinking.

Foul trouble them made things impossible for the Eagles who began to lose their cool with Trey Moore receiving a technical as he fouled out against his former club hot on the heels of forwards Darius Defoe and Kadiri Richard.

None of that mattered to Coach Garbelotto and his players who were only too happy to celebrate another hugely convincing success against the Eagles as they moved to within 40 minutes of another piece of silverware.