BBL Championship: Cheshire Jets 91 Essex Pirates 85

Feb 6 2011 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

FANS arrived at the Northgate Arena expecting a blow-out for the Jets - but what they saw was their side grind out a result against a pointless Pirates side that was unlucky not to beat Newcastle Eagles 24-hours earlier.

The Pirates may be rock-bottom, but they showed their mettle at the Northgate Arena this evening, winning two quarters and holding the lead at the end of the same two.

By contrast the Jets were clearly still trying to shake off the cloud that has been hanging over the side for the last couple of weeks. Disjointed at times they allowed the Pirates' physical approach to keep them off-balance and only a great fourth-quarter performance from the team and some flashes of Jeremy Bell's early-season form secured the points for the home team.

What the Pirates did very well was to deny the Jets in scoring zones. Quemont Greer, so impressive of late with his work under the basket, found himself repeatedly checked out in the paint as Essex ran a good defence.

By the end of the third the Jets trailed by eight and needed to pull themselves together. Captain Colin O'Reilly was missing after receiving a blow to the nose and Gareth Murray was on three fouls.

"Colin's an important player for us," said Jets head coach Paul Smith after the game. "He's a big part of the chemistry of the team and when he's off the court we're not as good which is why we keep him out there a lot so it was a blow, but we need to be able to deal with that.

"We can't lose any one single player and let our performance drop, we've got to have cover for that but eventually we did regroup and took the win."

It was Bell who stepped up, almost doubling his tally from the rest of the game in that final quarter as he found his three-point range again to finish the match with a game-high 31 points.

"Jeremy got into one of those little zones which helped us tonight," said Smith. "If you're going to do that do it in the fourth!

"He did a good job and kind of broke the game open for us as he does. We can't keep relying on him though, we have to find other ways to win games and that's one of the focuses I've got to work out at the minute."

Greer put up 20 but Murray was fouled out late on forcing O'Reilly back into the fray once more to see the game out.

His presence proved calming enough for the Jets to get themselves to the final buzzer in the lead to claim a win which will hopefully bring the confidence flooding back into the squad as they prepare to go to Newcastle Eagles on Friday.

"They had a big run on us in that third quarter and it took us too long to respond. I can't question the character of the team though.

"They did look a bit downhearted today, I haven't seen that for a while, they looked a bit tired, their heads were dropping at times and I was trying to do all I could, using the carrot and then the stick and then both, just to try and get their heads up because I knew if they were playing with a bit of energy and bit of motivation that they would get across the line.

"We're maybe just at that point of the season where we've been training twice a day and all that kind of stuff and there's still a long way to go and a bit of psychology is needed this week I think to try and get the guys on track.

"It was hard fought, as expected. I think people think in the stands that Essex, 0 in 18, they're going to be rolled over but nobody beats them by 30 these days.

"When we saw Newcastle being taken all the way and we saw Plymouth being taken all the way, they've improved massively and they will get a win very very soon.

"Performance wise it definitely wasn't great and it wasn't consistent but we dug deep when we needed to and we pulled the win out."