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BBL Bullets shot down by Sharks
Did anyone really expect Sheffield Sharks to rest on their Cup-winning laurels ? Not a bit of it. Chris Finch's side returned to the mundanities of the Dairylea Dunkers Championship with a visit to Birmingham and put on the most dominating second-half display of the campaign so far.
Sharks reversed a four-point Bullets' half-time lead with a no-frills, passing performance to run out 72-94 victors, a result which condemns Mike Finger's side to a fourth straight loss.
"We knew they'd come out hard at home," admitted Sheffield skipper Todd Cauthorn. "They probably had something to prove and initially we didn't do anything to stop them. The main thing at half-time was to come out and turn things around and we just had to keep playing."
And like against Manchester last Sunday, it was Nate Reinking who stepped up to the plate with 17 points in the third and fourth quarters which swung the game comprehensively in his team-mate's favour. Terrell Myers notched a game-high 30 points including seven in a row during a decisive 0-9 start to the second half which gave Sharks their first lead of the game, an advantage they would not relinquish.
But while the backcourt kings ran up the scores, it was the industrious support of Cauthorn, Richard Windle and Peter Scantlebury which mattered most, Cauthorn hitting 14 points and 10 rebounds.
In the opening stages, it was the Northern Conference leaders who faltered, committing multiple errors as the hosts raced into a 19-9 lead which was capped by a three-pointer from Nigel Lloyd. The veteran Barbadian - who racked up a team-high 25 points - helped his team together in the absence of out-for-season Yorick Williams but replacement starter Lee Walker struggled to create the openings for his colleague.
Only Justin Phoenix was stepping up in the front court but his inexplicable stay on the bench through the third period coincided with Bullets' worst spell. The 21-13 lead at the close of the first period was narrowed to 35-31 at half-time but Sheffield's bench came up trumps after the re-start.
Windle and Iain McKinney turned the screw on Bullets with consecutive three-point scores in a 2-18 run which left Sharks up 46-58 and not even a duo of scores from outside the arc from Lloyd in the final quarter could revive Bullets ailing fortunes as Shawn Jamison summed up his - and the home fans' - frustration with a late technical foul.
"Once we got some easy baskets, we ere able to get ahead by 10 or 12 points," added Cauthorn. "Then we ran our game."
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