THE Northgate Arena was once more the place to be for sporting high drama as the Cheshire Phoenix secured an entertaining victory over Glasgow Rocks.
It was the first time this season that the Rocks had faced the Cheshire franchise in any form and it delivered all the ebbs and flows that punctuate the greatest spectacles in the BBL Championship.
A tight first quarter saw Sterling Davis, who started for his Rocks side, and Matt Lloyd feel out the opposition but it was clear from the outset that slack defending was allowing the Rocks to keep in touch with the Phoenix.
Former Cheshire Jet Gareth Murray got stuck in on what was once his home turf and his scoring prowess was critical for his side at times and by the end of the opening quarter the Phoenix led by a slender four points 19-15.
The game remained nip and tuck early in the second, with Shawn Myers providing the Phoenix' best offence. He hit an important three-pointer before jamming in a dunk after which he debuted a celebration dance in front of the Phoenix faithful.
Jerome Gumbs began to warm up too and a rare shooting foul outside the arc which sent Chez Marks to the line for three successful free throws helped the home side stretch out a 41-31 lead by half time.
At that stage the Phoenix were looking strong but throughout the match there had been concerns over their defensive work and intensity.
The Rocks were out-rebounding them and taking full advantage of any defensive mistakes, a factor not lost on Mike Burton, who assisted Lloyd on the Phoenix bench.
Throughout the first half he spoke to substituted players about their defensive responsibilities and what they needed to improve on but as the third quarter got underway the Phoenix seemed flat and sagged off their defensive work.
The result was devastating. The Rocks, who had not looked to have enough firepower or defensive prowess to beat their hosts, exploited the failings of the Phoenix and turned a 10-point deficit into a two-point lead.
A timely timeout by Lloyd saw he and Burton urge their charges to increase the energy level on-court and return to their original gameplan which had been successful form the start.
Change came instantly. Marks hit a triple and a two either side of a Gumbs score and Gabe Haskins nailed a fadeaway jump shot that got the crowd on their feet and astonishingly there was a second deep foul resulting in three free throws, Shawn Myers converting all of his shots.
Going into the fourth there was still little between the sides however as the Phoenix led 60-57 but the momentum was with the home side and the crowd, which was significantly increased form last week, were getting loudly behind their team.
Chez Marks triggered the Phoenix' final push with the game's third rare occurrence when he was fouled while shooting a three-pointer that dropped in, giving him a four-point 'and one' play.
He put the free throw away and put daylight between the Phoenix and the Rocks. Myers set up Gumbs for an alley-oop score and from there the Phoenix cruised home to finish 90-79 victors.
Afterwards Lloyd said: “It's another win on our home floor against a team we haven't played against this year so it's a good W.
“We came out very flat in the third. We came out 10 up and within six minutes they had gone on an 18-7 run that really hurt us. But luckily when we were level the guys managed to pull it up again and it turned into a more comfortable win.
“We called a timeout just to remind them what we've been working on in terms of defence, what we want to do offensively, what sets to use because sometimes one of our sets may be particularly strong against a certain team so we were just saying 'hey, we used that in the first quarter and it worked, but we haven't used it for maybe 20 minutes'.
“The weak area for us is rebounding. We are giving up a lot of rebounds offensively and defensively. That's our area of improvement.”
One area that was pivotal for the Phoenix was free throws. For a few years now the charity stripe has not been very forgiving for Cheshire teams but against the Rocks they won 30 and made 80% of them.
“We've been working on our free throws, every time we go hard in training our rest break is free throws so we've shot a lot more free throws this week and it's paid off.”
