A week on from a raucous celebration at two dramatic play-off wins, Sheffield Sharks’ season ended among bitterness and anger against Cheshire Phoenix.

At the same Canon Medical Arena that was bouncing to the tune of progress seven days earlier, boos rang out and arms flailed as Sharks lost their cool in the heat of the moment to fall out of the play-offs in two games to the Cheshire Phoenix.

The chance to force a game three in Cheshire on Tuesday night and keep their alive their hopes of making it to a play-off final against the London Lions at the O2 Arena in the capital next Sunday went up in smoke.

Atiba Lyons was ejected from game two on a red-hot Sunday afternoon inside and outside the arena as tempers flared during a stormy second quarter in which Sharks went from trailing by two points and well in the game, to down by 21 and as good as out.

Point of contact: Marcus Delpeche goes up to score a basket but has his wrist grabbed by a Cheshire Phoenix player, a foul that is not spotted during the madness of the second quarter.

Lyons was ejected for two technical fouls (verbal or visual dissent) the second of those just a sarcastic raising of the arms as referee Eduard Udyanskyy gave another contact foul against his team.

It was the second time in three weeks Lyons has been ejected. On the first occasion, assistant head coach Marko Backovic rallied his troops to help Sharks overcome Caledonia Gladiators to set up the fourth-place regular-season finish that they cashed in with those two wins over Leicester in the previous play-off round.

Ironically, given how bewildered Lyons was by the officiating, he was ushered away from the court by one of Sheffield’s most notorious sporting referees, former football whistle-blower Uriah Rennie.

"We can’t let emotions affect the team and unfortunately we let that happen tonight,” said Lyons.

Jalon Pipkins scores a lay-up as Sheffield Sharks fell to Cheshire Phoenix (Picture: Adam Bates)

"Absolutely I’d like to take it back. It was inexcusable, I’ve got to make sure I’m giving myself the best chance to lead these guys and I didn’t do that so it’s on nobody else but myself.”

In his absence, Backovic could not make lightning strike twice against a Cheshire team that had already won game one 89-83 on home court on Friday night and have proven themselves to be the best of the rest behind runaway British Basketball League leaders London Lions all season.

In another energetic atmosphere, a feeling was growing this was not going to be Sheffield’s night from a shooting perspective when the roof came off.

Lyons ejection amped-up the atmosphere another notch, with the fans venting their anger at the officials who were calling technical fouls at every minor complaint the players had.

Sharks were penalised five times in a 2m16s spell that gave Cheshire five free-throws which they hoovered up to stretch their advantage to 41-25.

As let down as they felt by the officiating, someone on the Sharks needed to take a beat and calm everyone else around them down as their season slipped away.

But nobody could as Cheshire pulled into a 50-29 lead at the break on the back of Aaryn Rai driving to the basket but also 23 free throws from Sharks fouls, of which they scored 18.

Even spurred on by the sense of injustice, the deficit against a team with accurate three-point shooters was always going to be a tall order, despite the best efforts of Malek Green – named earlier in the week as the team’s most valuable player – who led the fight in the third quarter with 10 points.

Marcus Delpeche got the deficit to 17 points driving at the basket to earn a rare 2+1, but on the next play Prentiss Nixon – rouser in chief of an energetic crowd – was also ejected from the game for unsportsmanlike conduct, having picked up his first technical foul during that mad two minutes a quarter earlier.

Cheshire closed out a 92-73 win with relative ease, the Sharks at least continuing to fight to the very end, that fact acknowledged by the 1,600 fans in attendance who applauded them off after what had been an anti-climatic end to what has been an encouraging first season in the new arena they have lobbied hard for for many years.

“It’s unfortunate how it’s ended,” admitted Lyons.

“The guys had an unfair shake a little bit but we have got to do a better job of not rising to it like we did,” he said.

“Refereeing in this league is not always consistent and I’ve got make sure nothing affects the team and tonight I think emotions are high.”

Atiba Lyons and Sheffield Sharks lose their cool as season ends in heated play-off semi-final