Everton Tigers 99-79 Essex Pirates
Worcester Wolves 76-65 Cheshire Jets

The Worcester Wolves picked up another morale-boosting win, this time over the Cheshire Jets on Friday night, whilst the Everton Tigers comfortably beat the Essex Pirates 99-79.

At Greenbank it was the Pirates who had the advantage early on in this one. Although they crept out to a 9-3 advantage, the Tigers came growling back, as they bought the scores level at 10 points a-piece.

After the first quarter finished 25-22 to the home side, the scores were tied again early in the second period, at 25 a piece, but once the Tigers edged out to 32-25, it was 'all she wrote' for the Pirates, as they struggled to get back into the game. The scoreboard read 52-37 at the end of the half, and the Tigers had a massive 79-54 advantage going into the fourth.

At Worcester, the Wolves started the game the better of the two sides, as Daniel Gilbert, Harry Disy, and Devin Smith combined for the first 7 points, without reply from the Jets. A 9-3 run then put them up 16-6, before the Jets' Shawn Myers found his way to the bucket off a Chez Marks assist. Although Marks and Myers continued to help the visitors back into the game, the Wolves broke away to a 22-12 lead at the end of the first period.

The second stanza began with the Jets' Stephen Gayle netting a three pointer, to leave the scores at 22-15, but Worcester's Kastytis Normantas' dunk made it 24-15 to the home side soon after that. The sides then exchanged scores, until Worcester increased their lead to 36-22, with 7:49 left in the period.

They continued this form until the end of the quarter, and were some distance ahead at the half, 43-28 up. The third quarter was then a similar story, as the scoreline read 60-44, thanks to some tough Wolves defence. There was no way back for the Jets in the fourth quarter, as the game finished 76-65, an eleven point win for the home side.

The British Basketball League (BBL) are delighted to announce that Arbtech Environmental Services will be sponsoring the 2010 BBL Dunk Contest.

The highest flyers from around the BBL will be converging on Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on BBL Cup Final Day (Sunday 17th January 2010) looking to impress the judges as they bid to lift the prestigious crown.

Arbtech are a market-leading environmental survey provider supplying all types of topographic, ecological and environmental surveys to public and private sector clients, throughout the UK. Since their beginning in 2004, a policy of recruiting and investing in the best and brightest has fuelled the rapid expansion of the business, the result being a nationally renowned, land and environmental survey company. Already a principle sponsor of Cup Finalists, the Cheshire Jets through supporting their community programme, one of the most comprehensive in the North West, this latest development shows that General Manager Robert Oates and his team are committed to supporting the growth of professional basketball, from grass roots level right through to sponsoring one of the most popular events in the British Basketball calendar.

The BBL Cup Final event promises to be a huge day of basketball entertainment, headlined by the mouth watering Final match up between the Cheshire Jets and the Sheffield Sharks (3.30pm). Also on the bill will be the pivotal BBL Trophy clash between the Manchester Magic and the Worthing Thunder (12.30pm).

There will also be a host of other entertainment including the Crazy Dunkers acrobatic dunk team who are flying in from France especially for the event, the BBL Babes, mascots, and much more.

Tickets for this must see event are selling fast and are available from www.theticketfa ctory.com or by calling 0871 945 6000

Each home game I have the great pleasure of writing a blog for the Sheffield Sharks game night programme. Obviously I like to welcome the visiting teams and their supporters but basically I am allowed by the club to write anything I want to write.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SHARKS' BLOGS FRONT PAGE

The BBL title race is well and truly open for business in 2010, as Sunday's events confirmed. The revamped Worcester Wolves came agonisingly close to a shock win over league leaders, Sheffield Sharks, who held onto a 90-88 overtime win thanks to two big plays from new signing Mike Tuck in the extra period, and a three pointer from Mike Cook at the end of the fourth to keep the game alive, sending it into overtime.

Meanwhile, Airwaves Plymouth Raiders got another much needed win under their belts as they fought hard for the 87-74 victory over Everton Tigers, who now lie in joint 6th place with Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders. After shading a first half score line 38-30, Gary Stronach's Raiders did the necessary things in the second half to secure a significant victory away from home.

Leading all scorers was Terry Horton, who posted 23 points for the visiting Raiders, whilst Drew Lasker had 21 points and Florentino Valencia had 15. For the Tigers, Olu Babalola and Kevin Bell led the way with 19 and 18 points respectively, whilst Jerome Gumbs had 16 points to his name.

Back to the Wolves-Sharks game, and after a confident 8-4 start from the Sharks, Paul James team fought back to lead 18-19 at the end of the first period. The second stanza saw the lead change several times, with the Sharks eventually coming out on top 42-35.

The third quarter looked as if it would be Wolves-dominated, but the Sharks went on an 11-0 run which the Wolves were forced to answer with a 14-3 burst which left the score at 56-52.

The fourth was even more intense, as the Wolves were kept in the game by Kastytis Normantas, who tied the scores at 64-64 late on in the game. He kept the West Midlands based franchise in the game for the last few minutes of regulation, only for Cook to nail the three ball off the inbound pass to tie the scores at 76-76, thus forcing overtime.

The extra period was neck and neck, until four points from Mike Tuck in the last minute, saw the Sharks through on a 90-88 win. Atiba Lyons, player-coach of the Sharks, commented: 'Today was a good win, but we did a lot of things poorly' he said 'We had a cold spell when we needed to score, and gave up three open looks. I am not going to put it down to the Christmas break, as we were up by twelve or thirteen points, but switched off and got a little bit over-confident.'

READ THE MIKE SHAFT BLOG HERE

The foundation of basketball as a sport rests on four elements, which most directly influence the attained quality of the basketball game. These elements make a chain consisting of inseparable rings. In case just one of these rings would get broken, the chain would lose the strength it is expected to have.

READ THE FULL MASTERCLASS HERE

The BBL Championship Table now looks a lot tighter at the top, with the Newcastle Eagles just two points behind league leaders the Sheffield Sharks, whilst the Guildford Heat sit on the edge of the play off places in joint eighth position with the Worthing Thunder.

The Eagles visited the Heat on Sunday, and the scores were neck and neck from the opening tip, until baskets from Mike Martin and Julius Joseph gave the Heat a 13-8 lead with 6:21 left in the period. They then split another four points between them to take the home side's advantage out to 17-8, with five points from Kenny Langhorne then putting the Heat ahead 22-18.

For the next two minutes however, the Eagles, who looked to be in trouble, made a commendable charge, outscoring the home side 8-2 until with under a minute to go in the first, a field goal from Joseph and two free throws from Tayo Ogedengbe put the Heat up at a comfortable 28-18.

The second period was to be a completely different story, as it finished 46-45 in the Heat's favour, but they did go as many as 14 points ahead, 40-24 with 8:07 remaining. The Eagles outscored Chad McKnight's men 11-6 for the rest of the period to keep in touch at the half by a single point.

With the third period finishing 63-62 to the Heat, there was everything to play for in the final ten minutes, which was nip and tuck throughout. The turning point in the game for the Eagles particularly, was the score lines being level at 72-72 with four minutes to go, only for the Tyneside outfit to go on a 10-3 burst, despite missing four free throws. This proved to seal the game for the Eagles, leaving player-coach Fabulous Flournoy a satisfied man: 'We played a good game but struggled in the first quarter'

He continued: 'The Heat played very well, with a lot of energy, and they beat us last time we were here in a very similar game' he added: 'We needed to pick up our defence in the second half which we did. We cleaned up on the boards - Lynard (Stewart), Charles (Smith) and Darius (Defoe) all got lots of offensive rebounds. It was a case of matching their energy rather than doing anything different.'

Everton Tigers will start the New Year with a major boost following the signing of former Newcastle Eagles' star Trey Moore. Moore, twice BBL Player of the Year, arrives on Merseyside having spent the 2008/09 season helping Newcastle to a sensational treble of The BBL League, BBL Trophy and The Championship.

The 6ft4in guard had already experienced silverware with Big Storage Cheshire Jets who won the BBL Championship in 2004/05.

Moore, a Mississippi State graduate, first came to Britain in 2003 when he joined Birmingham from his native Houston.

Since then the 33-year-old has spent a season in China and in Strasbourg before returning to Jets in 2007/08. In 2008 he joined the Eagles where he helped propel them to the top of the league.

Earlier this year he became only the third ever player in the 22-year history of the BBL to win the Player of the Year Award twice - edging out Tigers' Andre Smith in the 2008/09 season.

Tigers head coach Tony Garbelotto revealed he had been looking to sign Moore for some time. He said: "Trey has made a huge impact on the BBL in recent years and he is a player that we have all been watching.

"His score sheet proves his strengths - averaging in excess of 20 points per game throughout his two seasons with Cheshire Jets and helping both the Jets and the Eagles to collect silverware.

He continued, "He has played at the highest level in this league so will be sure to bring his experience and versatility to the team. 2010 promises to be an exciting culmination to the season."

Trey Moore said: "I have a lot of respect for Coach Garbelotto, and he brings the sort of intensity to a court which I love. I had some great games against the Tigers last season, and I've been following their results this year. I am looking forward to helping them keep up their return to form, and trying to bag some more silverware in the New Year."

Sheffield Sharks held off Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 78-81 on Saturday night and 86-74 on Friday night, to clinch their place in the BBL Cup Final with a 167-152 aggregate score over the two leg semi-final.

Friday's game, at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, saw a match-up between the BBL's top two scorers in Mike Cook and Tack Minor. However, it was Cook who came out on top, as he scored 31 points for the winning team, whilst Minor had 29 in vain for the Riders. Tafari Toney had a huge double-double of 18 points and 15 rebounds for the home side, whilst their new signing Mike Tuck, scored a commendable 11 points on his debut.

Leicester shaded the first half 41-44 but Sheffield came roaring back and led by double-digits for much of the fourth quarter to set up Saturday's second leg in the East Midlands.

Saturday's 78-81 victory for the Sharks means that they reach their first final since winning the BBL Cup and play-offs in 2004. They will take on Cheshire Jets at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on Sunday 17 January 2010.

A Bradd Wierzbicki three on the third quarter buzzer capped a 5-1 finish to the quarter, putting Riders 58- 53 in front, going into the fourth quarter. Wierzbicki, who top scored with 23 points in the game, scored the first two points for the final stanza to cut the overall margin to five, but that was as close as Leicester would get. Sharks levelled the match at 62-62 and once Mike Tuck had given them the lead they never were tied or trailed again. Sheffield's newest signing scored 12 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to see his team through to the Final. The other influential players for the Sharks were American Point Guard Ryan Patton, who played through injury to hit 17 points, but Mike Cook led the scoring for the visitors with 21 points to his name.

This weekend has also been jam-packed with BBL Championship action, as Friday evening saw a win for Everton Tigers over the Marshall MK Lions, based on a terrific second half display. On Saturday, the Essex Pirates secured a surprise 80-72 home court victory over the Cheshire Jets, as 30 points from Tanner Adu led the way for the Pirates.

Sunday evening however, was the most eventful in the BBL Championship, as the Eagles kept up their pursuance of the title with a 68-89 win over PAWS London Capital, the Marshall MK Lions eventually held off the Airwaves Plymouth Raiders 108-93, and the Glasgow Rocks put Worthing Thunder in their place with a convincing 103-85 triumph. The headline game of last night's action though, was the Cheshire Jets come from behind win over Guildford Heat, as Chez Marks' last gasp three pointer sealed an 85-84 victory.

The final line-up for the semi-finals of the BBL Cup has been decided as the current holders, the Everton Tigers, were knocked out of the competition by current BBL Championship pacesetters Sheffield Sharks by a score of 99-90 after overtime at the EIS, Sheffield on Friday evening.

The Sharks will now play the Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders over two legs in the semi-final of the competition with the winners heading to the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham to contest for the first piece of silverware in the 2009/10 season where they will face the victors of the other semi-final between the Marshall MK Lions and Cheshire Jets.

Despite eleven points from Mike Cook in the final period for the home side, the Sharks could not shake off a resilient Tigers outfit and it was left down to Olu Babalola to sink the three-pointer on the buzzer at the end of the game to send the contest into the extra period.

With both sides trading baskets in the early exchanges of overtime, it was left upto Cook once again to spark some life into the Sharks outfit, and eight points from the League's top scorer instigated a 12-0 run for the home side to break the game open and take the score out to 97-85. Despite a valiant effort from the Tigers to get themselves back into the game in the dying seconds, the Sharks were not to be outdone and sealed the victory from the foul- line.

Cook himself bagged a total of 41 points in the game, including 23 points in the final fifteen minutes of action, while Babalola top-scored for the Tigers with 19 points personal.

In the other game of the night, the Newcastle Eagles moved themselves into joint second place with the MK Lions, and just two points behind the Sharks, after a 101-87 victory over the Airwaves Plymouth Raiders at the Metro Radio Arena.

The Eagles took control of the game in the second half and a 9-2 burst midway through the third period took the score out to 67-56 and the home side continued to extend their lead throughout the remainder of the game to leave the Raiders at the bottom of the table with just one League win to their name so far this season.