Match report: DBL Sharks Sheffield 101 London Lions 86

The Lions had enjoyed a 5-0 start to the season before visiting Sheffield but the Sharks – without head coach Atiba Lyons due to personal reasons – were immediately on the front foot. Kyle Odister, Zach Gachette and captain Tuck set the tone with some sharp offense, although the Lions stole a 25-27 lead on the buzzer.

It was more of the same in the second quarter - despite the Lions drawing first blood the Sharks came back strong, four triples from Odister giving them a 43-41 lead when timeout was called with 3:00 left of the half.

Odister and Tony Wroblicky added more points before Tuck’s spin and lay-up levelled the game, and a crucial defensive rebound from Wroblicky kept the score at 50-50 at the half.

The sides went toe-to-toe at the start of the third, neither side stretching out a lead until Cardell McFarland, Tuck and Odister turned up the heat, helping the Sharks put together a 14 point run to lead 74-61 going into the final quarter.

The Sharks stretched their scoring run to 18 in the fourth before a superb lay-up from Odister crowned an impressive Sharks performance by pushing them past 100 points.

Tuck said: “We scored over 100 today and we had multiple guys in double figures. We beat a really tough London team so it’s a big win in front of our home crowd - there’s nothing better.

“One of our biggest issues so far this season has been not scoring the ball, whereas tonight we had 50 points by the half way mark - everything was better.

“We said before the game, whether Atiba is here or not this is about going up in the standings and this is going on our record - but this win was for Atiba, we wanted to get this win for him.”