‘NIX STREAK HITS SIX; SURREY DENIED FIRST WIN
- Updated: January 8, 2014
Cheshire Phoenix continued their impressive form of late with back-to-back wins on the road to take their current win streak to six games. Meanwhile, Surrey surrendered a first half lead in search of their first win before suffering a ten point loss against Durham.
Coach John Lavery picked up the Molten BBL Coach of the Month award after his side went unbeaten through December and the ‘Nix began 2014 in the same manor with victories in Birmingham and Plymouth. First was their 89-71 success over the Knights with Victor Moses producing a dominant 25-17 display then 24 hours later, Cheshire enjoyed a 100-84 win over the Raiders, led by Dominique Coleman’s 30 point haul. Reggie Middleton scored 54 points over the weekend and dished out a combined 18 assists in 76 minutes on court.
Durham Wildcats snapped their four-game losing streak after beating Surrey 79-69 despite trailing by six at half-time. The visitors used a strong third quarter to gain the initiative and held off a late surge from United to record their sixth win of the season. With Birmingham’s loss to Cheshire, both sides at the bottom have lost all sixteen of their league games so far.
At the other end of the table, Leicester moved to the top of the table temporarily after a double overtime victory over title-rivals Sheffield. The two sides were locked at 60-60 at the end of regulation and couldn’t be separated after the first additional five minutes before the champions prevailed. The Riders handed a debut to new signing Mike Black and were led by Rashad Hassan’s 22 points while Andrew Sullivan added a 14-14 double-double.
Worcester then regained their lead in the race for the Championship after overcoming a slow start to defeat Manchester 95-80 on the road. David Aliu’s season-high 35 points were in vain for the Giants as they missed out on the chance to close the gap on their play-off rivals. Will Creekmore top scored for the Wolves with 26 points while Zaire Taylor contributed 23 points and 11 assists before being awarded the December Molten BBL Player of the Month accolade.
The first game of 2014 saw London Lions maintain their slim hopes of challenging for the title with a convincing 81-65 win over Glasgow Rocks. Rod Brown filled the stat sheet with  19-6-6 as well as 3 steals while Chez Marks added 13 points against his former club, who decided to release him in November. Sterling Davis top scored for the visitors with 17 points but his side now find themselves in eighth spot and looking wearily over their shoulder after losing in Plymouth the following day.
The Raiders enjoyed a 95-83 success before their defeat to Cheshire and were led by Trevor Setty and Matt Pressey, who both scored 21 points while Donald Robinson added 19 and Nick George had 18. Plymouth led for most of the game and a strong fourth quarter gave the final score a more convincing look.
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