The race for a place in the post-season play-offs continues at the EIS on Friday evening as Sheffield host MK Lions.
The Sharks go into the game on the back of an 87-78 home win against Guildford Heat last week, and are now sixth in the BBL Championship table with an 8-9 record while Lions will look to bounce back after a pair of losses last weekend and are currently seven with seven wins from 11 games.
The sides have already met at the EIS this season, with Sharks running out 85-66 winners in mid-December, and they can clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker with a victory on Friday.
Sharks’ club captain Adrian Anderson was pleased with that win against the Heat and is looking for a repeat performance this weekend: “It was a good win for us, unfortunately I didn’t see it as I was at a funeral, but the feedback I got was that we played well. It’s nice to see Ryan [Patton] back, and doing what we does best. We’re still down on numbers, but we were able to get a win against an athletic team and it should be a big moral boost.”
“Like Heat, Lions are another athletic team that like to get out in transition. We need to keep the game in the half court as much as possible and limit [Demarius] Bolds. We can’t make it into a track meet as that suits their style of play.
“I think Stefan Gill is a tough player, he can get hot really quick push ball and play tough defence. I respect that as a player, he’ll cause the guards problems at both ends of the floor. They’re a defence side, and they’re not to be taken lightly. We mustn’t sit back on the fact we won last week, we need to dig out another win.”
Lions’ coach Mike New is ready for a difficult game in Sheffield: “Sharks are a team that we have our sights on and with their recent addition of [Ryan] Patton they are smarter because he brings familiarity having played there last season. Jimmy Langhurst has played well against us and Mike Tuck brings his versatility which causes problems. We played horribly as a team the last time we played and we are looking to play better on both ends.”
