Rodney Glasgow’s buzzer beater sealed Sheffield Sharks' win

Having comprehensively beaten the Giants the previous week, a much tougher game played out but the result was equally satisfying.

The last time we were 2-0 at the start of the campaign was in 2013-14 when we beat Cheshire by 73-61 and Manchester by 71-57. This time around it feels extra special because the Giants of 2021-22 are clearly a very good side. They breezed through the BBL Cup group stage as north group winners and are stacked with the best of British talent including Great Britain captain Dan Clark.

Last Friday’s game was never going to be the same as our 101-73 demolition job over Manchester on opening night. The Lancastrian’s coach Lloyd Gardner is highly rated within the game and with home court and his excellent team, a much tougher contest was expected. And so it proved.

Manchester took a 44-38 lead by half time as the game sprung into life in the second half. The third quarter became a three point shootout with 56 points shared between the sides as Manchester kept a lead of four to six points throughout. The game turned inside the final twenty seconds when Jonathan Williams hit the triple that brought us to within one point at 88-87. Manchester managed to step out of bounds on the next possession and that left us seven seconds to take the glory.

And take it we did! From the inbound, Kipper Nichols eventually found Rodney Glasgow Jr, whose floater dropped through the basket just as the final buzzer sounded. Scenes of jubilation followed to cap our best start to the league for eight years.

While Rodney came up with the match winning shot, it is credit to the versatility in the roster that Jordan Ratinho collected the MVP award for his 17 points, six rebounds and five assists including five successful three point shots that kept us in touch with the Giants.

Attention switches back to the BBL Cup this weekend with our quarter final tie against the high quality London Lions. We certainly won’t be overawed and our recent results show we have a team to reckoned with.

We go at 7.30pm on Saturday if our supporters want to catch the livestream from the Copperbox Arena through the BBL Player (www.bblplayer.co.uk).