Day 2 of my big basketball weekend continued
(or when Ladi went to work)

And so the women of Leeds Carnegie and UWIC Archers depart the floor and the scene is set for the final game of this great Carnegie Basketball weekend.  That would be the Men’s Division 1 game which would see the home team take on the high flying London Mets.  I had been told that Mets were unbeaten so far this season and that this would be a tough one for Carnegie to win.

I was lucky enough to have seen a few of the Mets players in previous games and to put it mildly they are an impressive outfit.  Quite a few of the team had played in both Kukri Invitational tournaments and others had BBL experience.  Players like Ajumobi, Danchie, Irish and Obanye are all guys I had seen before as was their player/coach Solomon Ayinla. Further, Ladi Brown of Carnegie had played with most of these guys over the years so bragging rights were definately at stake.

Well what a ballgame this turned out to be.

The first quarter was a war, tough D, fast breaks, and 'and 1s'.  It was all there.  The score at the end of the first was 23 to Carnegie and 25 to London Mets.

Shooting guard Aturo Noha was stroking it and had 11 points for London while Carnegie were led by Fenyn also with 11.  But also impressing for Leeds was Zoltan Supola who has 6 tough points in the paint.  Ladi Brown of Leeds had started the game but was yet to bother the scorers.  Jeff Danchie was handling the ball for the Mets and he was definitely running tings!

And so to the second, and Fenyn of Leeds continued his good work knocking down 8 points taking his score to 19 personal.  For London, Danchie nailed two big triples while Wakanena also made one from outside the arc. 

One of the biggest plays was a defensive stop by Leeds which led to a fast break and dunk by Ladi Brown.

The score at the half was 45-43.  Leeds Carnegie were actually leading the unbeaten London Mets.  Could this big a famous victory for the home team?  Only time would tell.

Into the third quarter and highlights here include two more dunks from the irrepressible Ladi Brown.  The full house was loving it.  At the end of the 3rd it was still a two point game 61-59.

Into the 4th and what an atmosphere we had in the house.  Every Leeds score was followed by a crescendo of noise, as was every London turnover.  Two big threes by player/coach Ayinla for London silenced the crowd but the play of this quarter and of this game belonged to Ladi Brown.

Brown had the ball on the block, left side of the basket and made his move to the rack.  I may have imagined it but to me it looked like three plays in one.  At first he looked as if he was going to lay it up, then decided to dunk it.  But this was no ordinary dunk.  There were three defenders under the basket when he went up and up and up.  Then he brought the hammer down on the rim!!!  AND 1!!!

The whole house exploded.

This game was over with a capital O…everything else was tame.  Leeds Carnegie won the game 86-79 for possibly the biggest victory in the history of this franchise. On the final whistle it was high 5s all round with Ladi Brown the centre of attention.  Oh how he didn’t hate it!

So game three of my weekend was over and that was the end of my weekend’s work but there were still two games which held great interest for me.

Day 2 of my big basketball weekend continued
(or when the Sharks bit the Eagles)

As I mentioned earlier The Sharks were on the road to Newcastle Eagles for another big one.  The Eagles had lost their last game against Plymouth Raiders and were again without their talisman Fab Flournoy still struggling with his damaged finger.  Now when I am not able to make it to a big game I can be found in front of the computer with my Facebook, Twitter and What’s Bev pages open.

Fortunately there was great interest in this game and people were tweeting the scores and Statboy was on form on What’s Bev.

All I know about this game is the Sharks were killing the Eagles until the 3rd when the home team made a run and took the lead.  In the end the Sharks regained their composure and took another famous victory on the Eagles floor.  The unstoppable Mike Cook of the Sharks went for 36 points....Oh BABY!!!

This victory took the Sharks to 8 and 3 keeping them at the top of the BBL table and consigned the Eagles to defeat number 3 to go along with their 6 victories.  It also drops then down to 3rd in the table where they now trail the second placed Milton Keynes Lions.

Day 3 of my big basketball weekend continued
(or when the Jets shot down the Eagles)

Still one more game to go in this big weekend and that was the Eagles road trip to Cheshire Jets in the quarter final of the BBL Cup.

I can still remember the game at the Eagles home court against the Everton Tigers not so long ago.  It was a terrible game and I was hugely disappointed having given up 7 hours to go to Newcastle. 

Well the first half of this one was even worse. 

I am not going to spend even one minute talking about it other than to say the score at the half was 34-28.  At one point I suggested to Frisky that both baskets might have had an invisible covering on them.

Between them the teams had 20 turnovers, and had missed 25 of their 58 shots.  

Man it was Bad…that’s with a capital B.

I have to say I'd thought seriously about heading home at the break but I thought I’d give it a few minutes before walking out.

Boy I’m glad I did. The rest of this game was a total Joy.

I don’t know what the Head Coach of the Cheshire Jets Paul Smith told his guys in the locker room but it certainly worked.  They came out firing and the star of the third quarter was John Simpson who took it upon himself to control this game.  He was doing it all.  At the start of the 3rd he had played 7 minutes and was 0 for 2 with 2 turnovers.

In the 3rd he had 7 points including a monster triple and 1 glorious round-the-back assist.  His energy seemed to spark the whole team who responded in style.  Shawn Myers would lead all scorers for the game with 15 while O’Reilly would add 11.  For the Eagles the ever dependable Charles Smith had 18 including 4 from beyond the arc, while Lynard Stewart added 14. 

Looking back it is almost impossible to work out how the Eagles lost this game but lost it they did.  This game had overtime written all over it but in the end the Jets got it done in regulation. The final score was Jets 64 Eagles 61. The Eagles had a final shot by Reggie Jackson to tie the game and take it to overtime but he failed to make it.

So another home crowd went home happy and it’s another long journey back north for the Eagles having now been knocked out of the BBL Cup.  They are now 0 and 3 without Fab Flournoy.  There is no doubt that the Eagles are hurting but I am confident they will fly again.

So that was the end my monster basketball weekend all I can say is this.

Roll on next weekend

Later

Mike S

READ PART ONE HERE

READ THE ENGLAND BASKETBALL REPORT ON CARNEGIE WOMEN HERE