It’s been a long time coming but Mersey Tigers finally racked up a BBL Championship success on the road after stunning fans inside Kelvin Hall by blowing away the home favourites.
Due to some terrific early defence by Tigers, the Rocks were always on the back foot and never truly recovered from their initial drought in what head coach Sterling Davis will probably consider the worst performance of the season for his team.
However rather than focusing on the shortcomings of the Rocks, this win was all about the vibrancy of the visiting Tigers who were superb at both ends of the floor.
They started the game brightly and having held the Rocks to just one basket during the first six minutes, they went 9-2 ahead and it wasn’t long before they were in front by double digits as a score by Marlon Capers made it 18-7.
Rocks managed to splutter into gear eventually and managed to limit the damage at 20-13 heading into the second quarter but when the excellent Myles Hesson made a three-pointer to make it 33-20, Tigers kept their stranglehold on the contest.
Down 47-34 at the interval, Sterling Davis desperately needed a response from his under-performing team but it didn’t arrive as the Rocks continued to misfire.
This was in stark contrast to Tigers who kept purring offensively and looked slick as they exploded at the start of the second half with 10 unanswered points which effectively killed off any hopes of a Rocks revival.
As the home side continued to try and at least make the final score-line a tad more respectable, Tigers still thoroughly enjoyed the last quarter and cruised to a landmark victory.
All action Myles Hesson finished with a double-double for Tigers with 16 points and 11 rebounds.