BBL Championship: Cheshire Jets 87 Mersey Tigers 92

Jan 23 2011 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

A TASTE of their own medicine was administered to the Cheshire Jets as the Mersey Tigers exacted revenge at the Northgate Arena by beating the Jets in the home side's fourth consecutive nailbiter.

Anticipating an exciting derby clash to match Friday's thrilling Jets victory at the Echo Arena, the Northgate witnessed a lock -out as fans clamored to see Paul Smith's charges repeat their heroics on home turf on Sunday evening.

But the pressure game that Tigers coach Tony Garbelotto applied to cut the Tiger's 20-point half-time deficit on Friday was employed from the start in Chester and once more posed problems for the Jets.

They were not helped by the fact their shooting, which was excellent 48-hours earlier, proved off in the first two quarters and with centres Calvin Davis and Steve Smith not bullish enough on offensive rebounds they failed to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

When half-time came and the Jets trailed by 17 points, the Jets' faithful were left wondering if this would be their night.

But, just at the Tigers did at the Echo, so the Jets bounced back with Jeremy Bell (37) returning to deadeye form and Colin O'Reilly leading from the front, the skipper taking on 22 points himself.

But the Tigers kept Quemont Greer quiet throughout and it proved key to the game. Nevertheless the Jets closed the gap to a single point at 85-86 in the fourth quarter and temporary signing Steve Smith rose to his feet to whip up the crowd, in front of whom he had earlier scored his first home points for the Jets, in an effort to push them past the Tigers.

It wasn't to be however, as the Tigers held on to win by five points, leaving them two points clear of the Jets in the BBL Championship having played a game more.

Afterwards Jets' head coach Paul Smith said: "I suppose if you play around with close games then it's going to catch up with you.

"It was a close one again today and I guess we have to look to the first half as where we lost it. It is no secret when these teams come together what tactics each team will use and it's just about who executes the best and we didn't execute with any real intensity in the first half.

"We got some good looks and they just weren't dropping and the conversation at half-time was about upping the intensity at the defensive end and keep taking good shots as they will drop eventually."

But Smith also hinted that the absence of Matt Schneck was beginning to bite as the squad is missing the power and form of the bullying centre.

"You've got to remember we're playing for large chunks of the game at the minute without a centre," he said. "Neither Calvin nor Steve Smith are stepping up to the mark enough at the minute for us to justify them being out there.

"So we're going with a small team against possibly the biggest team in the league and rebounding is going to be a key area for us. It's not necessarily about winning those statistics, it's about surviving them. When you lose by a couple and you get dominated on the boards that's something you've got to look at.

"We could have executed a little better down the stretch. At any stage over two minutes you'll turn the ball over a couple of times and when it happens down at the end in a close game everybody will look at that and say that's how we lost it but we didn't, we lost it because we only played defence for one half.

"This team is about defence whether it's man or zone. I believe we have the best zoning defence in the league and if we execute it for the full 40 minutes we'll win games."

But Smith is confident this result will not rock their title aspirations too much.

"We're still in it," he said. "And we're one week closer to getting our centre back so I'm not down. I've seen the guys put in another 80 minutes worth of effort. Four guys in particular are carrying heavy minutes and heavy burdens and producing the goods.

"We get our fifth guy back we'll be fine we've just got to do a little bit of hanging in there till then. But would I have accepted had you offered me one win and one defeat at the beginning of the weekend, no, absolutely not."