7 Days EuroCup
Joventut Badalona 89-78 London Lions (19-12, 20-19, 25-27, 25-20)
Badalona – Tomic 16, Ellenson 14, Velez / Guy 13; Lions – Zubsek 19, best 18, Taylor 14
BBL Championship
Cheshire Phoenix 105-81 Surrey Scorchers (28-21, 34-27, 23-22, 20-11)
Phoenix – Austin 25, Archibald 21, Jack 17; Scorchers – Steele 17, Lawrence 13, Curry/McFolley 11
The London Lions made a grueling 7-day European Football Championship Qualifier this season, but came to an end with an 89-78 loss to Joventut Badalona in Spain.
With Sam Dekker hampered, Tomislav Zubsic led the BBL team, which fought to the end of a physical match, but it wasn’t enough to beat the top seed and move on to the next stage.
Meanwhile, the BBL competition continued on home soil as Cheshire Phoenix relied on solid home support to fend off a powerful third quarter attack from Surrey Scorchers and claim a 105-81 win.
Strong defense slowed homers Cheshire Oaks Arena, but Larry Austin filled the home team’s stat list with 25 points, nine rebounds and 12 assists.
Joventut Badalona scored nine unanswered points before the London Lions scored to kick off the first round of qualifying at the Palau Olimpic De Badalona.
It was two free throws from London’s Tomislav Zubsic, which were quickly followed by Jordan Taylor that made the scoring go easy.
Sam Dekker was the first player in the BBL to score a field goal, which was a complete command at the heart of the Spanish defense – aggressive play typical of Europe’s top scorer.
Still struggling off the field, the Lions bolstered their defense by staying home on Badalona’s three-point shots.
This meant that Joventut’s big man Joel Parra was in an advantageous position to grab attacking rebounds. The home team rally behind it and resulted in Andres Velez leading by three 15-6.
Miye Oni got a dunk for the Lions after his full field defense flicked the ball away from Ante Tomic. Oni followed that up with three, closing the first quarter 19-12.
Each team traded baskets to start the second quarter but the home team adapted to the defensive principles of the visitors.
Badalona’s Kyle Guy started attacking the edge and was rewarded with points and missed shots. He put his 10 halfway through the frame, which he quickly expanded to 16.
Henry Ellenson was called off for an unsportsmanlike foul on Joventut, after the bulky man elbowed Taylor’s face. This cleared a made basket, sending Taylor to the free throw line.
The Lions then held the ball and ran good possession out of timeout, with Luke Nelson attacking the pass and kicking it to Taylor for a three on the perimeter, closing the London deficit to just 39-31 at the half.
The fitness from the first half carried over into the opening few minutes of the third quarter.
Badalona stripped the ball from London player Aaron Best, who gave up the recovery and fouled the Phillies in the process.
Velez and Pest went back and forth again: the Joventut keeper hit a buoy on a cut in the fairway. Best outplayed his opponent by cutting the back door and getting an easy pass.
The Lions barely made a mistake in the second quarter, but opened the third with five runs in the first five minutes, including an offensive foul on Sharma that went technical.
I felt the momentum was with attacking London, but Badalona’s free throws kept them ahead, going into the final 10 minutes with the home side leading 64-58.
The Lions marked areas but Ante Tomic of Joventut cut across the middle of the corridor and found Illinson in Dunker’s spot to stop the ball.
Then Tomic got his own bucket by receiving the ball at the top of the corkscrew and driving for a score-and-fault.
This changed London’s tactics into a complete trap. They stole it in order to dunk a Dekker the first time, and another heist led to another dunking Dekker, but he landed very carefully.
Taylor cut the deficit to eight, but Badalona scored twice in a row and Lions coach Ryan Schmidt pulled Decker up with nearly four minutes left.
London continued to fight back, but they were unable to close the gap below nine in the dying minutes.
The European Football Cup campaign has brought an impressive 7 days to a close for the Lions, who were knocked out in the first qualifying round.
At the Cheshire Oaks Arena in the BBL Championship, Amorie Archibald made a huge early impression on the home side.
He scored seven points in the first five minutes for the Cheshire Phoenix, including a difficult, acrobatic layup.
Boban Jakdonmi came on for Surrey Scorchers and made an immediate impact, getting an assist on passing the ball as soon as he entered the game.
Then he followed up a blunder with one of his signature offensive rebounds that kicked him back off after a slow start. Despite this, Cheshire finished the opening frame 28-21.
The first few minutes of the second quarter were all Marcus Evans – he hit a triple, and the rest of the team followed his lead.
Larry Austin also scored from a distance, but they were all assisted by several Phoenix players, who were putting on a great display of coach Ben Thomas’s driving and kicking offense.
It was also a solid defensive effort by Cheshire. They made it hard to get through by tipping or delaying entry.
A few of them resulted in steals for Austin and Jameel Anderson. The latter resulted in an early look to paint David Ulph – and Cheshire rose by 21 points.
Scorchers coach Lloyd Gardner called a timeout to address the deficit, and this woke up Josh Steele.
He scored eight points in the closing two minutes to reduce the lead to 14 before the start of the first half, which kicked off the scoreboard with a score of 62-48.
The defensive intensity carried over into Cheshire’s second half. Anderson got a huge block that caused Austin to throw the ball.
Anderson’s long arms kept the ball away from the passing lane on the next over, which made Maceo Jacques an open dunk that pushed the lead to 20.
Josh McFolley led a Surrey comeback in the third quarter. With three minutes left in the game, he followed up a corner kick with a quick steal and another play at the basket.
Then he found Steele on the perimeter for three, and caught another pass to Kyle Curry that cut the Scorchers’ deficit to 10.
More steals helped Cheshire push their lead back up – first Austin and then Ulph – but even when they didn’t steal it, the home side were getting stops and scoring every time on offense.
As the ball bobbed to Archibald for a defensive bounce, he opened up the lane for him to make an end-to-end run that led to a corner kick, which put Cheshire ahead by 25, and reached 29 by the end of the match.
A win keeps the race for fourth place tight, and Cheshire will face a tough task if they are to keep their hopes of securing it alive by traveling to Bristol on Friday to face the Flyers.
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