Rise of the Phoenix as Tigers take a step backwards

Cheshire Phoenix rounded off a tumultuous November, which began them almost on the brink of collapse, before securing their position for the rest of this season, with a dominating 65-92 display over local rivals Mersey Tigers.

Both sides were with key injuries, Chez Marks (hand) for the, now affectionately known, “Nix”, and Josh McGinn (foot) for Tigers. However, whilst Cheshire had reinforcement in the shape of former Tiger forward Jerome Gumbs, Mersey were at a loss without McGinn and with no-one truly capable of stepping up in his place. Someone who was present, sat in the bleachers, was former Jets head coach, John Lavery, who was there to take in Phoenix’s first game.

Starting Fives:

Mersey Tigers: Calvo, Hulsen, Bigley, Hudson, Lockett

Cheshire Phoenix: Myers, Haskins, Bland, Gumbs, Brandreth

It was a slow start for both sides, with over a full two minutes before any score was posted, but once shots did eventually start to find their way into the basket, it was all one way traffic as Phoenix went on a late 9-0 scoring run. Combined with that was just a 6 point quarter for Tigers, who showed a complete lack of effort and desire to even want to be on court.

An improvement overall in terms of points scored, but little else in the second quarter for Mersey as yet again Phoenix took flight, in particular the sterling efforts of Gumbs, who had only stepped off the plane Thursday night, creating opportunities galore for himself and others. The lead at the half had doubled by the time the teams went into the locker room, 22-50, but not without a definite feeling of dejection and frustration from the home side about their lack of intensity on court, due probably from missing McGinn to control the game and setting up plays.

The third and fourth quarters were a great improvement for Mersey, but the damage had already been done. Baskets were traded throughout, and Phoenix were comfortable in applying a little less pressure, but still were posting up the scores thanks predominantly to Alif Bland. Cheshire edged the final quarter though and took home a 27 point victory, Phoenix’s first under that banner, but Cheshire getting the 3-0 for the season.

Speaking post-game, Tigers’ coach, Tony Walsh, felt one key issue was to blame: “The discipline for me at the moment is a big thing,” said a disgruntled Walsh, “A few of them think they can do stuff that they were allowed to do, and got away with, in lower divisions. That’s not acceptable by me, by the owners, and there will be a few fines going in after this game just for pure attitude to referees and other things. People pay to come here, we don’t need players here showing disrespect. It will be dealt with, and players know that will happen.

“We just didn’t turn up to play at all, Josh was injured, but the rest of the team didn’t seem to want to step up. I’m very disappointed in them. There’s no positives here tonight. They turned up thinking it was going to be easy, Chez Marks, a big player for Cheshire injured, and they thought they’d won it. My bench players looked better than my starting five at some stages; they know it’s not good enough, but we go back to training and work from there.”

Chris Bigley, seemingly the only Mersey player on court with any spirit racking up a game high of 25 points, came off court, and despite his efforts, was apologising to the home supporters: “There was no heart, no passion and we didn’t come out of the blocks – what went right? Me included, we are a team; we win together, we lose together. Every week I’m prepared to sacrifice every second, every bit of blood, sweat and tears to see us get a win.

“This was a game where Chez was sat down and we’re thinking ‘Yes – we can get at these guys’ but we got six points in the first quarter! It’s not good enough and it won’t get it done! We’re a bunch of young guys, and we had to set the tone, and we didn’t. Again, I’m not excused, I came out slow as hell. We have to keep to the plan, not just stand there and go ‘Uh-oh’.”

“We are missing guys sometimes, and we are a unit needing everyone here, but there comes a time when you can’t say that anymore. We go with who we have and the plan doesn’t change.

Phoenix coach, Matt Lloyd, who again made a cameo appearance at the end of the game, admitted as well that his team took their time to take control of the game: “We were slow to start, Jerome apologised to me for him not being up to speed after having touched down yesterday. It can have an effect, but I spoke to Gabe and asked him to change things and try a different approach, he was the one to give us that spark back in the point guard position. We limited them to points, and we then began making a real game of it.

“It’s a big relief now that we have some backing. Team moral is really good now, not that the guys weren’t strong before, but having a new player in, a new name, logo; in some respects it is like starting the season over again. Our target is to come out with a positive win ratio, there’s a long way to go, playoffs is our goal but we also can now start to think a little more about the Trophy and just see what happens.”

Play of the game: Jerome Gumbs driving inside, getting towards the baseline like a bull, before picking out the pass to Alif Bland, and I can report that the basket is still continuing to shake after the jam he made on it. Wonderful move.

Game MVP: Alif Bland

Next up:

Mersey Tigers away at Sheffield Sharks, 7th December, 7:30pm

Cheshire Phoenix home to Newcastle Eagles, 2nd December, 5:30pm