Sheffield Sharks need supercharged fanbase to roar them to victory against Cheshire Phoenix

On that occasion, some 1,500 tickets were sold in less than 24 hours as the Sharks backed-up a thrilling buzzer-beater victory on the road at Leicester Riders on the Saturday night with a rousing victory back on their home court in the decisive game three of their British Basketball League play-off quarter-final series.

Because of that success, club officials have had a week to try and sell tickets for this Sunday’s game with the Cheshire Phoenix, the second game in the best-of-three semi-final series that began in Cheshire on Friday night.

Phoenix won that one 89-83 to take a 1-0 lead into Sheffield on Sunday. Prentiss Nixon scored 20 points and RJ Eytle-Rock 19 but no other Sharks player got into double figures.

Game three, if it is needed, is set to be played at Phoenix’s Ellesmere Port home on Tuesday night.

It means Sharks go into game two on Sunday needing a win to keep the series, and their hopes of making it to the play-off final at the O2 Arena in London on May 19, alive – and the noise and energy their home crowd bring is going to be of huge significance.

“It’s been a great atmosphere, especially recently in the play-offs,” said Ratinho, who is in his fourth season with the club and had grown accustomed to lower-key occasions in the old building at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

“It’s really exciting to see fans travelling to away games to support us and that really helps us, it really does. So tribute to our fans and all they’re doing.

“We’re going to need the same energy again on Sunday.”

Sharks are in the semi-finals of the play-offs for the first time in five years largely because they have a much deeper roster than before.

Two years ago when they were bounced out of the play-offs by Caledonia Gladiators (then known as the Rocks), point guard Ratinho was playing almost 40 minutes a night with Sharks only able to put seven players on the court.

Last Sunday in the decider with Leicester, all 10 players contributed, with the man who gave Sheffield the spark to keep the pressure on the Riders being Prentiss Nixon, who didn’t even make the starting five.

“I think we have more scoring options than ever before, we’ve got to be one of the deepest teams in the league,” said Ratinho, 26. “We’ve got any number of guys who can come in and play and contribute at a high level and we rely on that.

“Being able to bring real starters off the bench is big-time in being able to continue that energy and play at a high level and know that when the next guy is coming on he’s doing the same thing.

“We got a lot of trust in our guys, a lot of guys who can make plays and we know going into every game that we have a chance to win, and not only that but that we should win and that we should be favoured to win.”

Ratinho is one of the most reliable three-point shooters on the Sharks, but in Cheshire they face a team who build their offence around multiple three-point strike-hitters, even if that was kept relatively quiet on Friday as Phoenix only converted 10 of 33 attempts from outside the arc.

“We’re just going to have stick with what we’ve been doing defensively, we know every guy on our team can guard, every guy on our team can stop who is in front of them,” said Ratinho.

“So it’s going to have to be another huge team effort.”