IF losing is a habit, then Glasgow Rocks will hope it is an affliction they can quickly break. Defeat to British Basketball League title rivals Newcastle on Friday was excusable. Another reverse to Surrey Scorchers last night anything but. Sterling Davis’s men are now ten points behind leaders Leicester but at least with a comfortable cushion in third. But a fourth-quarter collapse cost them the chance to quickly regain momentum as their bogey side left the Emirates Arena with a 89-75 win.
With Neil Watson and Anthony Elechi out, the Scots coped manfully in hitting nine unanswered points to move 26-18 clear after the opening period. And with Kieron Achara racking up 13 points and as many rebounds, they looked poised to triumph short-handed.
However the Scorchers, paced by 27 points from ex-Rock Tayo Ogedengbe, hit back with an 8-0 burst and although Glasgow pulled clear again, the visitors produced the most timely of surges. Holding the Rocks to just five points in the opening five minutes of the fourth quarter, they closed with a 9-1 run that put the Rocks – headed by 21 from Hayden Lescault – on their heels.
Leicester remain on track for the title after beating Cheshire 82-75 while Sheffield kept up their chase of the Scots by holding off Plymouth 87-81.
Meanwhile, Women’s BBL strugglers Caledonia Pride were crushed 88-59 by Northumbria to stay one place off the foot of the table. Sarah Thomson scored 21 but the Scots were undone in the second period when a 13-2 flurry wrecked their chances.
RESULTS
BBL. Glasgow Rocks 75 Surrey Scorchers 89, London Lions 81 Leeds Force 92, Plymouth Raiders 81 Sheffield Sharks 87. Sat: Bristol Flyers 82 Sheffield Sharks 69, Leicester Riders 82 Cheshire Phoenix 75
WBBL. Caledonia Pride 59 Team Northumbria 88
Former Scotland and Great Britain basketball captain Bill McInnes – regarded as one of the country’s greatest-ever players – has died after a brief illness at the age of 71, it has been announced.
Currently serving as the chair of the British Basketball Federation, and a long-time chairman of Basketball Scotland, McInnes was a player, coach and official at Boroughmuir Basketball Club in Edinburgh and was the fulcrum of the team which won the British title in 1972 as well as making several appearances in the European Championship Cup.
He earned 172 international caps, including 49 for GB – holding the record appearance mark for over three decades – and led a successful lobbying campaign to earn a host berth at the London 2012 Olympics.
Spending much of his career as the manager at Wester Hailes Education Centre in his home city, he was awarded the OBE in 2000 for services to the sport which also included overseeing the growth of Masters basketball.
“Bill wasn't only a great basketballer, he was a great man,” current Great Britain captain Kieron Achara said. “He did so much for the sport and personally showed me a lot of support throughout my career. He will be missed.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here