Atiba Lyons has challenged his Sheffield Sharks players to rediscover their intensity in a winner-takes-all weekend double-header in the Super League Basketball Trophy.

Sharks fell flat at the Canon Medical Arena last Friday when losing to Newcastle Eagles, a team they visit tonight in their opening Trophy group game.

Win that and they have the destiny of the three-team group in their own hands when they welcome Caledonia Gladiators on Sunday. But lose and Newcastle - who have already beaten Caledonia in the first group game - will top the group and advance, leaving Sharks and the Gladiators to fight it out for a win to keep alive hopes of advancing to the semi-finals as the best runner-up from across three groups.

Whatever the permutations, Lyons wants his team to be a lot hungrier in both games than they were a week ago.

Welcome return: Sheffield Sharks could have Prentiss Nixon back this weekend after suffering injury in a game on Halloween.

placeholder image — Welcome return: Sheffield Sharks could have Prentiss Nixon back this weekend after suffering injury in a game on Halloween.

“You get those games in a season where you don’t come out with the same intensity and we were probably a bit too complacent after a good run, seeing a team we’ve just faced, and we perhaps took it a little too casual,” he said.

“It was a reminder that things don’t come easy and that you can’t take nights off.

“Certainly on Sunday, we need to come back and give our fans a better account of ourselves, a more passionate style of play. We didn’t play great defensively, we did some things we don’t typically do and to be fair Newcastle came at us with a good gameplan, so it was a mix of both, but it would be good to get back out in front of our own crowd and put on a better show.”

The sight of Mervin James suiting up for the first time was a welcome one, but also brought added challenges, like his integration into the team and that of Prentiss Nixon, a star of the last two seasons who could be back after an ankle injury.

“It’s good to see Mervin, it’s nice to start seeing the team come together and when you have practice you can get that full team out and have that competitiveness,” said Lyons. “Now we’ve got Mervin we can start implementing some stuff so it kind of takes us into pre-season mode a little bit, but the energy is good.”

On the possibility of seeing Nixon, he said: “Possibly, he may be available for Sunday.”