Glasgow Rocks coach Tony Garbelotto pulled no punches after his side sustained an 86-76 defeat to Sheffield Sharks in their British Basketball League opener last night. Soft, he declared. Disjointed. Lacklustre, at times. Early days, of course. However the Londoner’s revamped roster can expect to feel the backlash of hard graft this week in a bid to achieve the rapid improvements he will assuredly demand.
In front of what was a club record crowd of 5,000 at the Emirates Arena, it was an opportunity to impress and entice that slipped through the Rocks grasp. Ahead early, the hosts were pinned back, then found a response but subsequently shrunk in stature as Sheffield opened their own account. Despite
a game-high 21 points from the Great Britain internationalist Gareth Murray, Garbelotto saw precious little to savour and too much that pained.
“That’s a game that got away from us,” he said. “We didn’t understand that we were facing a good team which was taking some pride from losing their opening game. They responded. They were aggressive and confident. And we were never at the races.
“We were poor in the first half. Then we locked in and played well. But when we had a chance to kill them off, we levelled off. Maybe it’s a fitness factor. We have a lot to work on. But I knew that coming in. There’s a massive learning curve for us because we’re so far behind these teams.”
Sheffield’s 13-0 run at the outset of the second quarter extinguished Glasgow’s momentum as the visitors rolled towards a 51-41 half-time lead. And although new point guard Martez Harrison was instrumental as the Rocks hit 16 unanswered points to begin the third, the Sharks simply had more bite when it counted and in Mackey McKnight, who scored 18, an irresistible and ultimately decisive force.
After signing a one-month deal late on Saturday, American guard Earl Brown – who spent last term with Cheshire Phoenix - was a non-factor even in limited minutes and may even have been a distraction, Garbelotto conceded. “I was worried coming in about bringing Earl in and trying to integrate him in a single practice. We don’t know our identity at the moment so we need more.”
Elsewhere, London Lions sit top of the table after the opening weekend after easing past Surrey Scorchers 93-78.
RESULTS
BBL. Glasgow Rocks 76 Sheffield Sharks 86, London Lions 93 Surrey Scorchers 78
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