BBL Rocks land strike one over Giants
Edinburgh Rocks landed the first blow in their weekend double header with Manchester Giants, pulling off a thrilling 79-72 victory over their visitors at Meadowbank.
The Scots delighted the home crowd by scoring 8 of the last 9 points to leapfrog the Giants into third place the Northern Conference, a perfect psychological blow ahead of their re-match on Sunday in the Sainsbury’s Classic Cola Cup semi-final.
In the first half, both teams seemed more focused on the latter contest than the two points at stake in the Dairylea Dunkers Championship. The rival coaches introduced their second stringers early in the proceedings in which saw Edinburgh blast out to a quickfire 7-0 advantage.
Once the visitors stepped up their defence in the second quarter, the lead changed hands, Giants pulling 37-31 clear with nine consecutive points around the half-time break. Their lead grew to as much as eight points later in the third quarter but John McCord and Ted Berry led the home fourth period onslaught which pulled the Scots back into contention.
And it was Berry, who hit a team best 20 points, whose 1 of 2 from the foul strip with 1:34 left swung the match 72-71 decisively in the hosts favour.
Roy Hairston of Giants led all scorers with 22, one more than team-mate Tony Dorsey.
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