'In a lower gear': Sheffield Sharks stumbling towards SLB play-offs
Sheffield Sharks continue to give little indication that they can rescue the campaign with play-off glory as the Super League Basketball regular season draws to a close.
Sluggish in the first half of both games this weekend, they got away with it on Friday night in Newcastle, storming back to beat the Eagles 85-82.
But on Sunday they could not replicate the feat, again dropping 16 points behind Leicester Riders before ultimately falling to a 92-80 defeat.
With two games remaining of the season they look short of cohesion, Sunday’s performance particularly ill-disciplined and ragged.
They remain fourth in the standings, with a two-legged quarter-final in which they have home advantage for the second leg the likely outcome.
Not that there are any guarantees associated with playing at the Canon Medical Arena; for the first two seasons of playing there a fortress, but a venue in which they have lost five of 15 league games this season.
Starting the fourth quarter 12 adrift, having fallen 17 behind at one stage, Sharks got to within eight on a Nick Kern Jr dunk, the energy of Dirk Williams and Prentiss Nixon and the smarts of Fahro Alihodzic earlier on, but couldn’t close the gap.
Alihodzic and Williams had 16 points apiece, Kern 15, Nixon 11.
Alihodzic said: “We just didn’t come out with the right mindset to get the win today, we were in a lower gear most of the game.”
Sheffield Hatters are having no such trouble, a 106-67 win over Leicester Riders on Saturday night securing them the SLB Women regular-season title and the third leg of the quadruple.