Sheffield Sharks extend lead over Leicester Riders with Good Friday triumph
The B.Braun Sheffield Sharks extended their season lead over the Leicester Riders last Friday with a remarkable victory.
The Good Friday match-up in Sheffield, led to Atiba Lyons’ team going 2-0 in their games against the Leicester-based side. Next up for the Sharks will be a match-up against Scottish side, Caledonia Gladiators, who they will be facing for the final time this regular season.
The Sharks were 1-0 over the Leicester Riders after their first match-up back on September 26th, where they won 65-93 away. This is also Sharks' coach Atiba Lyons’ and Leicester coach Rob Paternostro’s 18th season against each other in their long-standing adversary.
The Sharks' new signing, Troy D’Amico, found his feet last Friday after his debut on, Sunday 29th March, putting up 9 points, including two three-pointers and an impressive game, putting in the work for final remaining games of the 2025-26 season.
Leicester managed to open the scoring, but the Sharks were right behind coach Rob Paternostro’s team.
The Sharks were already leading by ten points at the end of the first quarter, 25-15. By half-time, the Sharks kept that point lead after they went to the line twice at the end of the quarter, to rack up the score to 42-32.
Things only went up for coach Atiba Lyons’ team, as they pulled further away from Leicester with a third quarter score of 66-52. Victory was within reach, and with a 25-point gap, the Sharks were victorious with 93-68, leading them to their second biggest win over Leicester.
There were great performances from Rodney Chatman III (14) and Fahro Alihodzic (15), and closely contending for the MVP award was Dirk Williams, who produced an excellent 16 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists. Though narrowly claiming the award for a second week in a row, was Nick Kern Jr, with 16 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals.
The Sharks stay in fourth place in the SLB Championship table, however their competitor for the post-season SLB Playoffs could now either be the Bristol Flyers or Surrey 89ers, as they both sit on 24 points, fighting for 5th place.
With 5 games remaining in the regular season for the Sharks, they welcome 9th placed Caledonia Gladiators to the Canon Medical Arena on April 10th for Neon 90s night (7:30pm tip off). The Sharks are 3-0 against Jonny Bunyan’s team in SLB championship action. Tickets can be purchased from the Sharks website.