Cheshire retains Trophy repeat hopes alive in Surrey

BBL Trophy
Surrey Scorchers 74-93 Cheshire Phoenix (20-24, 28-20 16-23, 10-26)
Scorchers – Martin 17, Wang 12, Metal 11; Phoenix – 25, Austin 17, Jack 14

Cheshire Phoenix turned the third workforce to succeed in the BBL Trophy semi-finals with a 93-74 win over Surrey Scorchers at Surrey Sports activities Park on Saturday.

It retains their possibilities of a Trophy repeat alive, as Marcus Evans prompted points for the house workforce at Surrey Sports activities Park.

The thrilling guard scored 25 whereas hitting 3/4 from the perimeter, notching 4 rebounds, six assists and three steals main his workforce into the subsequent spherical of the Trophy towards the Sheffield Sharks.

The travelling Phoenix obtained out to an early lead. The Scorchers trustworthy at Surrey Sports activities Park knew the stakes and cheered loudly each time their workforce obtained a defensive cease, and so they exploded when Josh Metal hit a 3 from the highest of the nook to make it 9-17.

Metal’s teammate Ryan Martin obtained a pair of free throws, and Boban Jacdonmi obtained the ball when Cheshire’s defence collapsed on a driving Tayo Ogedengbe and threw it down for a giant dunk to chop the deficit to 4.

Maceo Jack and final week’s All-Star 5 participant Larry Austin settled the guests’ nerves with buckets. Nonetheless, Surrey’s captain Ogedengbe – solely lately coming back from an extended damage – confirmed no want to fret about his well being standing. He hit an enormous step-back to maintain his workforce inside attain.

On the ultimate play of the primary quarter, Andrew Lawrence attacked the double workforce in pick-and-roll and obtained to the road, the place he sunk two to maintain the house facet inside 4.

Surrey’s Shakem Johnson opened the scoring within the second quarter, ending off a Lawrence help after the purpose guard attracted a number of defenders within the lane. 

Lawrence adopted it up with an open three within the nook off a lovely passage of play that noticed each Scorcher contact the ball with fast passes on the drive and kick offence.

Padiet Wang lastly took the lead for the Scorchers on a 3, however Cheshire’s Will Neighbour hit one proper again on the opposite finish, and Lawrence tied it up at 30-30, taking the layup himself this time as an alternative of dishing it off. 

The Phoenix rose as Marcus Evans drove to search out Jack within the nook. Nevertheless it was tied once more after one other latest Scorchers’ returnee, Luke Busumbru, obtained into the lane and rose for a floater over some robust defence.

When Larry Austin tried an interception on the midway line on a Scorchers cross-court move, Wang caught the ball, and it was a five-on-four benefit – he discovered Jacdonmi chopping baseline for one more jam.

Jamell Anderson began to take the second quarter over. He obtained by way of the lane with good footwork for a straightforward open layup after juking the defenders.

He then obtained his hand within the lane on defence to faucet the ball to David Ulph, and so they kicked the ball forward to a leaking Evans for an acrobatic layup in transition. 

Anderson then cleared out in isolation and gave his workforce an extended two together with his foot on the three-point line.

The back-and-forth continued because the second quarter got here to a detailed. A Cheshire turnover got here to Lawrence, who rapidly led a four-on-one scenario. 

Wang was the recipient of an open dunk, and he adopted this up with an offensive rebound dunk off a Lawrence miss to encourage the house crowd right into a Mexican wave as their workforce took a four-point lead into the half.

Cheshire Phoenix put the defensive clamps on the Surrey Scorchers to begin the second half. However they moved the ball properly on the offensive finish, with Evans dishing to Neighbour for 3.

Anderson drove arduous and obtained the leap shot within the lane, plus a foul. Evans then discovered Neighbour once more and put the guests up three. 

Surrey’s Ryan Martin ended this run with an offensive rebound and a dunk.

That play appeared to wake the house crowd up after returning to their seats following a go to to the concession stands, which impressed the gamers on the court docket. 

When Cheshire’s Larry Austin noticed his move stolen by Padiet Wang of the Scorchers, he pushed the ball forward to Andrew Lawrence, who attracted defensive consideration and located Shakem Johnson for an open layup. 

The Scorchers appeared to Ogedengbe, who rose for one more spectacular three. 

He and Anderson dove on the ball on the following possession – it was retrieved by the Phoenix ahead, however Surrey’s captain was clearly in complete well being and eager for aggressive motion.

Even on defence, Ogedengbe stayed with Cheshire’s Tahjai Teague as he danced within the mid-range. Teague obtained the shot off over the outstretched arms of his defender and made it fall, but it surely was glorious offence beating nice defence. 

Metal scored the 1,000th level of his BBL profession on a few free throws, however Cheshire’s Amorie Archibald obtained a bucket to ship his workforce into the ultimate body with a three-point lead.

Archibald saved scoring, this time from three, then Evans left off a horns double display screen and hit a giant three from the perimeter that opened up a nine-point hole to start the fourth. 

Not like the share-first, multi-pass offence that helped the Scorchers earlier within the sport, Surrey went in direction of one-on-one play that continued to make issues troublesome. 

Just a few empty possessions later, Surrey coach Lloyd Gardner known as a timeout to refocus his workforce.

In the meantime, Cheshire picked up the team-first mentality and obtained Evans the ball in a pick-and-roll on the perimeter. The guard drove into the lane and jump-stopped to get a bucket and the foul that opened up a 14-point lead.

On a straight line drive for the Scorchers, Lawrence missed a layup, however Johnson mirrored the offensive rebound dunk that Wang transformed earlier within the sport. This roused the house crowd with simply over six minutes to go.

Martin managed to observe this up with a troublesome reverse layup for Surrey, however they nonetheless trailed by 15 as the strain grew for each side, resulting in errors for every workforce.

With 20 factors to his title, Evans was attracting loads of consideration within the dying minutes as Surrey tried a late comeback. 

Recognising this, he obtained into the lane and located a chopping Jack, who obtained the layup to go, and hit the follow-up free throw after being fouled within the act.

Evans put a dagger into the guts of Surrey within the closing 30 seconds by dancing on the high of the three-point arc and hitting a giant three for his twenty fifth level of the sport to cap off a efficiency that retains Cheshire’s Trophy repeat story alive.

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