A CLEARLY disappointed John Lavery expressed his pride in his players after the Cheshire Jets were eliminated in the semi final of the BBL Play-offs by the Newcastle Eagles.

The Jets fought bravely to defend the 10-point lead they built in the first leg on Friday, but at the Northgate the wheels came off as the BBL Championship league champions showed their pedigree and a little bit of winners luck to book their place at the final in Birmingham next Saturday.

On Friday night the Jets had led by 28 points at Sport Central at one stage, and managed to bring a lead to the Northgate Arena, where fans turned out in black for a show of support which the players dubbed Blackout Sunday.

But where in Newcastle the Eagles struggled to get their shots to drop in the first half, in Chester the Jets had the same trouble. Shots went wayward, bounced out and rebounds were not won as the Jets began the game seemingly a little shell-shocked.

The Eagles have plenty of big-game experience however and having licked their wounds from the first leg proceeded to exploit the Jets' faltering start. Veteran Charles Smith, made to look like a man at the end of his powers on Friday, led the charge as he ended Sunday's game with 26 points.

Eagles coach Fab Flournoy was virtually unable to call upon the services of Paul Gause at point guard following his ankle injury in the first leg, but Smith made up for it. He was helped by Andrew Thomson, who hit a double-double 13 points and 15 rebounds.

The Jets rallied and led by four at half time but things were still not quite clicking despite the thumping atmosphere in the Northgate.

An alley-oop and a putback dunk from Kai Williams lifted the Jets briefly, but they were still not looking like the side which devastated the Eagles at times in Newcastle.

Flournoy's men were in the faces of the Jets making life tough from start to finish and in the third they took control again, taking a four point lead into the fourth quarter. That four point lead meant the Jets led by six on aggregate but the final quarter saw the Eagles do what champions do.

BBL Championship MVP Joe Chapman hit three consecutive three-pointers to put the Eagles firmly in charge and from then on the Jets were playing catch-up. Matt Schneck and Colin O'Reilly attempted to slow the game down with fouls but to no avail as the Jets slipped to a 79-64 defeat, losing out by five points.

Adam Brown made 19pts and Bill Cole 18pts in the end but who scored what was of little consequence.

“I'm gutted, frustrated,” said Jets head coach Lavery after the game. “On a positive note it's been a long tough season but what the guys have been putting out the last couple of months has transformed the basketball club.

“We were unlucky. It was a tough game, we had a lot of open looks and nothing was dropping for us at all. But you look at those guys, they're not champions for no reason at all. They've won three pieces of silverware already this year and we were just unlucky.

“We had maybe 11 or 15 decent looks and we lost the game by five so if two of them go in we're straight in the ball game.”

Lavery expressed his pride in his players for reaching the final four of the play-offs so after people had claimed they would not even make the post-season.

“It's tough but the guys gave me whatever they could give me out there, we went with five guys and I'm proud of what we put out on the floor and they should be proud of what they have achieved over the last couple of months.

“Everybody was writing us off that we wouldn't make the play-offs, we ended up finishing 6th because we stayed together and played some good basketball.

“I wouldn't say it was a successful campaign because we've made no finals, we've got no trophies in the cabinet. But it was an improvement from what we had at the beginning of the year. We just had to change a couple of things around. We did that and it was hard at the start of the year but I had faith in these guys.

“I recruited them in the summer, I knew what they could do and they came out in the last couple of months and did a really great job for us. It's credit to those guys. They could have quit when we were on a bad run but credit to them they knuckled down in practice and games and came out big.”

The coach will now look towards next season and learning the lessons as he rebuilds for a new campaign.

“It's up to me to look at rebuilding in the summer,” he said. “I will work really hard to recruit a team that I think can bring some silverware back to the club, whether it's these guys that are going to come back or we have to go elsewhere and get them.

“There's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and bargaining to see what we can actually do for these guys. We're a long way off from that so I'm going to take a little break and then get back to work.”

And after his first season as a head coach, Lavery believes he will personally improve next season.

“It's been really hard,” he said. “It's a hell of a step up from assistant coach to sitting in the big seat but I've enjoyed it.

“I know I've made mistakes at times during games but that will change with experience. I think we got them playing well and playing hard at the latter end of the season which is the business end so overall I think the club's done a fantastic job with these guys.”