BBL Cup, 1st Round
 

Birmingham Bullets 73 - 75 Kularoos Plymouth Raiders
Kularoos Plymouth Raiders overcame Birmingham Bullets in an incredibly close 2 point ball game.
This saw them through to the Cup quarter-fianls where they will meet Brighton Bears.

Neither side could establish a lead in the first three quarters and Bullets just edged Plymouth out
at the end of each of them.  Mid-way through the second Bullets opened up a 6 point lead but
Plymouth made the next 4 points and this was the story of the game as they traded baskets
throughout.  However at 66-66 with 5 minutes left the Raiders produced a 7-0 tear to move it out to
66-73.  Bullets came back to within 2 with 20 seconds to go but Stephen Barnes' shot failed to drop
to tie the game and that was that. 

DeAntoine Beasley for Raiders and Ervin Murray for the Bullets each scored 24 points.  The star of
the game defensively was Raider's Gerrick Morris who blocked 9 shots to keep Bullets away from the
basket when they came inside. 
 

Leicester Riders 77 - 95 Thames Valley Tigers
Thames Valley Tigers will travel to Glasgow to face the Rocks after a comfortable road victory over
Leicester Riders.

They began to establish themselves as early as the first quarter, scoring 8 in a row to make the
score 6-16.  But it was in the second period when Tigers notched up 16 to no reply to take the score
out to 29-55 and this ultimately meant no way back for the Riders.  Mike New scored 19 of
Leicester's first half points.  They tried to come back in the third quarter, Joel Burns made two
three-pointers in a row and Leicester scored the last 10 points in the third and this made the score
62-76, the closest they got from this point.

Top scorer with 30 points was Tigers' Josh Murray, he was one rebound shy of a double-double.  Nick
Moore scored 21 points making 5/8 from the perimeter.
 

London Towers 84 - 86 Springfield Honda Newcastle Eagles
Springfield Honda Newcastle Eagles will progress to the BBL Cup quarter-finals where they face
another tough game on the road with TCS Chester Jets.  They are the first team to defeat Towers in
the 2004/05 season and a strong final stanza from Towers made the score look closer than it actually
was.

Jerry Williams scored a massive 43 points in vain for Towers, the top points haul so far this season
and this was over half of their total points.  Newcastle led at the end of each quarter and it was
in the second that they started to break away as a Charles Smith 3 pointer concluded a 7-0 tear.
They led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter at 68-47 before Towers fought back with a 12-0
run at the end of the third.  Led by star player Williams they ate into Newcastle's lead in the
final quarter and got to within 1 with less than a minute to go, Jeremy Hyatt made a free-throw with
seconds left to make the final score 84-86.

TJ Walker and Jeremy Hyatt shone for the Eagles with 22 and 21 points respectively, Walker shot 71%
from the floor.
 

BBL Championship
 

Brighton Bears 82 - 76 Westfield Sharks Sheffield
The Bears bounced back from their first loss of the season last night by defeating Westfirld Sharks
Sheffield at The Triangle.  The two teams were tied for second place in the league at the start of
the night but the Bears will sleep better knowing they are clear in second on six points.

It was the Sharks that got off to the better start leading 22-14 at the end of the first period as
they got off to an 11-0 tear in the first 3 minutes, Andrew Alleyne scored the first 8 points for
the Bears.  Brighton came back strong in the second with an 8-0 run and pegged Sharks back at 37-35
at half time.  From here they never looked back, opening up a 10 point lead going into the final
period and after a mini Sharks revival which saw them get back to within 5 Brighton managed to
maintain a six point lead and record the victory.

Bears' top scorers were Yorrick Williams and Andrew Alleyne with 20 and Tony Holley recorded a
double-double for them with 10 points and 10 rebounds.