Sat 26th Jan: London United suffer heavy reverse on road at Rocks..

Saturday 26th January, 2007

BBL CHAMPIONSHIP

Sheffield Sharks 83-67 London United  

QUARTERSCORES:

19-19, 45-33, 61-50, 83-67

GAME TOP SCORERS:

Sheffield Sharks (Lekan Popoola 18, Blake Shelton 17, Jeff Bonds 16)

London United (Tarick Johnson 24, Marcus Knight 19, Marlin Capers 12)

The Sheffield Sharks took a share of first place in the BBL Championship after an 83-67 defeat of London United at the EIS in Sheffield.

The Sharks held an 8-4 lead after the opening 4:00 minutes, before the visitors rattled off 15 unanswered points to lead 8-19. The Sharks hit back straight away courtesy of 6 points from Lekan Popoola and a triple from Todd Cauthorn that contributed to an 11-0 burst that knotted the teams at 19 after the first ten minutes.

Popoola was inspirational as the Sharks took a stranglehold on the game in the second stanza. It was his three-pointer to open the quarter that ignited an 11-2 run that put the Sharks up 30-21. He then poured in a further three baskets from beyond the arc late in the period to help the home side to a 45-33 half-time lead.

United failed to close the gap significantly in a scrappy second half, and still trailed 61-50 at the end of the third. They posted 6 consecutive points in the fourth but triples from Joel Burns and Atiba Lyons settled the game.

It was Popoola who led the scoring with a season-high 18 points, whilst Jeff Bonds had a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds and Eddie Cage also had 14 points and 12 boards. Tarick Johnson led the visitors with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

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