Tigers Take BBL Trophy
The Mersey Tigers routed the Guildford Heat 84-66 on Saturday in the BBL Trophy final at London’s O2 after a dominant second half performance.
With the Heat up 37-36 at half time, memories of the the heavily favoured Tigers’ January BBL Cup Final letdown were being raised. There was to be no repeat however, as Mersey turned it on after the break, going on a 22-0 run in the third quarter which effectively sealed the game.
Andrew Sullivan, was named MVP after flirting with a triple double, going for 16 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Andrew Thomson led all scorers with 21 points, whilst David Aliu and Tafari Toney both had double-doubles for the Tigers. Carlos Medlock led Guildford with 18, 6 rebounds and 4 assists whilst Julius Joseph added 14.
Talking after the game, Tafari Toney talked about Mersey putting the Cup Final demons behind them and what changed in the second half:
“We had a little talk in the locker room and finished as good as possible. I know we lost the last final but there was no pressure on this game. We knew we just had to move on and bounce back.”
“The whole team came together – that was very important. This is the first BBL Trophy for this team. It makes me proud and it’s great to be part of history.
Stats for the final can be found here.
Notes
- Highlight of the game was Nate Reinking’s buzzer beating three ball from just inside the halfway line-guy is a gun!
- Not sure of official attendance figures for the game (anybody?) but being in the o2 obviously made the number look a lot smaller than it was. Credit it where it’s due though-they made some noise!
- On the topic of the o2-absolutely awesome to have the BBL there playing before the NBA game, but I don’t think the opportunity was maximised. How many of the 20,000 people at the NBA game that evening were even aware of the game? Less than 10% at a guess.
Were you at the game? What did you think? Drop a comment and let us know!
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