LEICESTER HOLD ON TO SEE OFF SHARKS

Leicester Riders lift the BBL Trophy with an 90-85 win against Sheffield Sharks in Glasgow.

But they had to fend off the grittiest of second half rallies from the Sharks at the Emirates Arena which went right to the wire.

And the drama only concluded when Chris Alexander – who had a game-high 20 points – saw his three-pointer to force overtime with two seconds left bobbled out twice as Riders were able to seal victory.

Shane Walker scored a team-high 16 for Leicester who won the competition for the third successive year.

They had to fight though, despite leading by as much as 17 in the second period, but after the underdogs improbably went ahead in the fourth, Eric Robertson’s late three ultimately swung the pendulum.

“We knew they had it in them,” said Riders captain Tyler Bernardini.

“We were hoping to be out to a bigger lead so they didn’t have that kind of push. But credit to them for making it hard down the stretch.”

JR Holder finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks to earn the MVP award.

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Scotland break Rocks

Scotland tuned up for the Commonwealth Games with an 88-66 victory over Glasgow Rocks Select.

The Scots, led by 21 points and 14 rebounds from Kieron Achara, had assistant Craig Nicol at the helm in their last home outing before Gold Coast 2018 with nine of their roster available here.

And they pulled clear with a 10-2 run in the second quarter with the Rocks, paced by 20 points from Boris Matrakov, unable to catch up.

“It was a great display,” Achara said. “It was good to see some of the younger guys perform. It’s been a very weird week. We lost our coach. But we’ve got a new coach coming in now. We’re locked in. We’ve got a competitive advantage with so many of our players playing for Glasgow Rocks so we can’t wait to get out there now.”

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(Pics: Mansoor Ahmed)