Mervin James top-scored with 35 points and Dirk Williams added 23 as Sheffield Sharks claimed an important 101-97 victory over Cheshire Phoenix in front of a sellout Canon Medical Arena crowd on Tuesday night.

Sharks trailed by nine points after the first quarter but rallied to snatch a high-scoring game at the death.

William Lee and Prentiss Nixon had 14 points apiece.

Head coach Atiba Lyons said: “It felt like a big game, had a really good atmosphere to it, it had the energy, both teams played really well and it came down to the wire.

Mervin James attacks the basket for Sheffield Sharks in their victory over Cheshire Phoenix.

placeholder image — Mervin James attacks the basket for Sheffield Sharks in their victory over Cheshire Phoenix.

“Cheshire are a very prolific team scoring but the way we were playing I thought they’d have some cold spells.

“They started really hot but I thought it would level out. We had to call some timeouts to make sure we readjusted but I was confident the guys would get it back.”