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BBL Giants escape from Rocks crushing rally
Edinburgh Rocks dreams of Wembley glory were extinguished last night at the Skydome in Coventry, Manchester Giants 88-84 victory setting up a Dairylea Dunkers Championship final with Birmingham on May 6.
But the Scots so nearly pulled off mission impossible when after trailing by a mammoth 29 points midway through the third quarter, they stormed back to hand the top seeds the fright of their lives before succumbing at the finish.
Rocks coach Jim Brandon had predicted that his team's only chance of upsetting the top seeds was to stay in touch in the early stages with Manchester. Yet when Giants opened up a nine point lead in the first quarter before pulling clear for a 52-28 advantage at half-time, Edinburgh's chances looked bleak.
With a mountain to climb out of the hole they had dug themselves, the Rocks revival began with a 14-2 burst which trimmed Manchester's lead to 68-52 with ten minutes left. After eight of the next ten points went Edinburgh's way, the pressure was all on their opponents and when a three pointer from Jerrell Bowman capped a 10-0 run, the difference between the rivals was just two points with two minutes remaining.
But Manchester's experienced line up shook off the jitters to again pull clear and despite two late three point scores from Ted Berry, an impressive campaign for Edinburgh came to a disappointing end. John McCord led all scorers with 24, Berry ending with 22.
"That's what happens when you disrespect another team," conceded Phil Handy, who notched a perfect 4/4 from three point distance wthin his 20 points tally. "We did that and Edinburgh opened the floodgates and came back."
For the victors, Roy Hairston capped a dominating display with 21 points, while Tony Dorsey added 20.
"We were 15 of 27 from the foul line and even if we'd shot a little better, we'd have won the game," rued Brandon. "However I would have settled for the opportunity to be two points behind coming down the final stretch. We had to make a stand though when we trailed by so much and we came together. I'm proud of that."
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