Turbo-charged Sharks smash Rocks to bring home the points

It was back to Glasgow for the DBL Sharks Sheffield last week, the scene of the recent BBL Trophy defeat to Leicester Riders.

The outcome was somewhat different this time as the home-town Rocks saw their eight game unbeaten home streak taken from them in dramatic circumstances.

It had been a somewhat indifferent performance from the Sharks for three quarters, not helped by yet another hazardous drive north of the border in snowy conditions.

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However, a 33-8 final period saw the points come to Sheffield, thus cementing fourth place.

We were as many as seventeen points down at one stage.

Chris Alexander was ploughing a lone furrow with sixteen points before encountering foul trouble.

That seemed to spur the team on as Mike Tuck (19 including four out of four from distance) and Zach Gachette (18) turned on the turbos to hit a shell-shocked Glasgow side.

It was a fitting send-off for Tuck, who now heads to Australia’s Gold Coast as part of the England basketball team that will be mounting a challenge for the Commonwealth Games title.

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He will meet up with his team-mates, mostly drawn from the BBL, in Brisbane for a training camp before the tournament proper begins on April 4th.

The Games final is on April 15th so we will be without Mike for a considerable spell.

However, his selection is a tremendous honour for club and player and will be a pinnacle on his career.

Glasgow is a tough venue to go to so we were very pleased with the win.

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The Rocks hadn’t lost in eight at the Emirates Arena so it was nice to redress the balance for ourselves up there and claim fourth place by virtue of our eight losses, two fewer than our nearest rivals Worcester.

We have two games in hand on the Wolves and three on Surrey, who both have the same number of wins as us. We have four games in hand on Glasgow, who hang on to third place, but are clearly a team we are looking out for. It will be tough to carry on without our experienced captain but coach Atiba Lyons has been conscious of increasing the minutes of the rest of our roster to make up for Tuck’s absence.

Sol Rolls-Tyson is still young but has the physique and presence to step into the breach if required as a third big behind Tony Wroblicky and Rob Marsden.

Eleven games remain in regular season before the Playoffs.

We are looking to win the vital head-to-heads and gain the best league finish, and therefore Playoff seeding we can. We have a bumper programme for our fans over Easter. We entertain Worcester (March 28th), Bristol (March 30th) and Leeds (April 1st) at the EIS over Easter weekend, rounding off with the visit of London Lions on April 7th. The support of the SharkNation would be most welcomed as we look to build our Playoff momentum!