Sheffield earn crucial win

Sheffield kept their play-off aspirations alive thanks to a hard-fought 87-78 victory over the Guildford Heat at the EIS, Sheffield on Friday night. 

A 7-1 start for the Sharks set the tone for the opening quarter as they followed up their opening tear with a further 9-0 run to take the score out to 25-10 and the home side lead 27-13 at the end of the opening quarter.

The Sharks continued their strong start and opened up a 41-26 lead, but the Heat got themselves back into the contest thanks to an 11-0 burst to get the visitors to within four points at 41-37 heading into the locker rooms at the half.

In the second half both sides traded baskets for the majority of the third quarter and despite the Heat keeping the deficit at four points at 56-52, a Jimmy Langhurst ‘and-1’ finished off the third period handing the Sharks the lead at 61-54 heading into the final stanza.

In the final period, a 10-3 burst from the Sharks took the score out to 71-59, but the Heat closed the deficit once more thanks to a 12-6 tear to trim the gap to six points at 77-71.  Both sides traded baskets for the majority of the closing stages and the Heat got to within four points at 81-77 but that was as close as they could get as the Sharks secured the victory from the foul-line.

Langhurst led all scorers in the game with 26 points for the Sharks, while Andrew Lasker led the Heat with 24 points personal in the defeat.