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Good Friday turns bad for Sharks
Sheffield Sharks 72 Leicester Riders 87
It was a pretty poor Good Friday for Sheffield Sharks as their recent good form deserted them against excellent Leicester Riders.
Sharks had beaten Riders by 19 points on March 20 at the EISS but on the same floor last night the roles were reversed.
The defeat means Sharks, although still on course for the play-offs, will have to win at least one of their two remaining regular season fixtures. Any hope of finishing sixth depend on beating Scottish Rocks next week and hoping other results also go for them.
Riders led for most of the game after an early 7-1 run made the score 9-13. Sharks brought it back to 13-15 until a 7-0 Riders run began when James Whyte was called for an unsportsmanlike foul. Duane James made two free throws and Tony Windless scored from the inbounds play; Bradd Wierzbicki added a three-pointer to make the score 13-22.
Leicester started the second quarter with a 6-2 burst. The biggest margin of the first half was 35-52, before the teams went in at the break with the visitors up 38-52.
The lead went over 20 after a 6-0 run was capped by Barry Lamble's basket for a score of 45-67. However, Sharks made a game of it from that point, posting an 8-2 run late in the third to trail 55-72 going into the final quarter.
Matt Gorman scored eight points in a 10-0 burst that narrowed the gap to 69-80, and it was within single-figures at 72-81 on a triple from Chris Sanders with 2:00 left. However, Sherman Rivers was called for a technical foul after swearing at the referee with 1:30 left, and Wierzbicki made two free-throws to seal the game.
Sharks scorers: Whyte 15, Brown 14, Gorman 12, Sanders 11, Lyons 9, Cauthorn 9, Rivers 2.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
