BBL Championship: Cheshire Jets 75 MK Lions 86

Dec 11 2011 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

JOHN Lavery's Jets went into the Christmas break with plenty of food for thought after being bullied out of victory by Mike New's Lions at the Northgate Arena.

A brave performance by the Jets saw Bill Cole grab a joint game-high points total of 29 and Adam Brown pocket 25. Colin O'Reilly also earned a double-double of 12pts and 12 rebounds but it wasn't enough to overcome their powerful opponents.

The weapon the home side most needed was watching from the bench. Lavery's powerhouse, centre Matt Schneck, was still suffering with an ankle injury and was unable to take to the court.

His absence was noticeable as the Lions' big men ruled the boards, claiming 52 rebounds to the Jets 30. When they were not dragging the ball down, they were winning fouls in the paint, earning 25 free-throws to the Jets' 16.

All these factors combined saw the Jets ultimately go into the winter break having won three from eight BBL Championship games, a fact Lavery was quick to pick up on.

"The feeling in the dressing room is not very good," he said. "We were bullied and some of my guys didn't turn up to play.

"It's hard playing without a centre and the guys gave what they could. We've tried to leave it on a positive note going into the break. We lost the game by 11 and with five minutes to go we were still in the game but a few disappointing things happened during the game.

"The first half of the season has been disappointing. You look at tonight's game, Mersey Tigers away, Newcastle Eagles here and Durham away, four games that in my eyes we should have won.

"We got losses in those games. If we had got wins it would have been a totally different season. Our main aim for the new year now is to get everyone fit and healthy and once we do that we can look at different things.

"We haven't had a fully fit team out all year and if we can do that we can run our rotation a little bit better and maybe win those close games that we are currently losing."

Early on against the Lions the Jets looked like having a blow-out victory. Midway through a foul-riddled first quarter the Jets led 12-5 and the Lions couldn't get much to drop.

But as time progressed it was the Jets who found their final shots bouncing out while the Lions got their inside game sorted to capitalise on their abundance of powerful big-men.

To the Jets' credit they kept plugging away despite falling behind in the second quarter and they kept in touch, sitting just two points behind their visitors with five minutes to go.

But the Lions pressed home their height and strength advantage to send the Jets into the Christmas break hoping that Santa can deliver them a fit and healthy squad for the rest of the campaign.