Over the weekend the Lions failed to contain Cheshire Phoenix as five players scored double digits to close out the visiting team. The game saw a touching moment when players from both teams in an act of solidarity game took a knee before tip-off.
The Lions looked to add to the impressive performance against the Raiders, but it wasn’t the case as an exhausted Phoenix team was unable to muster enough to grind out a victory. Here’s the breakdown of how it went.
First-quarter
The Lions started the game impressively making their first three shots that put them in a comfortable spot early on. The previous meeting between these two teams saw the Lions make 18 three-pointers, the fire at will strategy was the game plan.
An early 7-0 lead to the lions was erased halfway through the quarter as the Phoenix’s Matthew Bryan-Amaning led the home teams charge with eight points and had Phoenix in command before DeAndre Liggins drove to the paint and finished with a strong and-one on his right hand leading Lions into the break 23-21
A very eventful first quarter went by in the blink of an eye as both teams refused to back down.
Second-quarter
Lions applied the full-court press on Phoenix which seemed to be working with the home team struggling once again at the start of the quarter. The intensity of the Lions did seem to be fade away similar to the first quarter. With a lot of back and forth lead switches between the two teams, Mike McCall put the hosts up by seven with three consecutive back-to-back three-pointers, coach Vince Macaulay called a timeout with five minutes left in the first half.
Meanwhile, the home team saw their opportunity to put on a show and extended their lead by 13 with two minutes to go in the quarter, 46-33.
The Phoenix were able to push through some of their first-quarter struggles and only built upon that on both sides of the court behind some excellent and entertaining play from Kahron Ross, who hit a three-pointer with a hand in his face.
The frustration in the Lions players was visible with Chris Tawiah slam dunking the ball after not receiving the ball wide open under the basket, as a foul was called on Justin Robinson. The first half finished 51-35.
Third-quarter
The Phoenixs for the most part made it seem fatigue was not a problem, however, the third quarter saw the beginning of a comeback for the Lions, as a 15-0 run cut the deficit down to within single digits.
A timeout was called by the Phoenix coach, Ben Thomas, and the third quarter certainly saw some Cheshire fans getting nervous but the team’s intensity on defense did not go away, the Lions having to work hard for every single basket.
Lions captain, Justin Robinson was the glue that made it all stick, putting in a true captain’s perm once again, rallying the boys in their comeback effort. He was able to end the game with 24 points.
The story of the game was Cheshire’s ability to take away the ball from the London players; another steal for the Phoenix by Kahron Ross saw him add another two points with a matter of seconds left on the clock at the end of the third, 68-59.
Fourth Quarter
In the last three minutes of the game the Lions got back in the game and made it a four-point game which unfortunately for the Lions that did not last long, an and-one bucket from Bryan-Amaning saw the hosts extend the lead 78-72.
With two minutes remaining in the last quarter, the Lions were only down 79-74, but it was visible that something just was not clicking for the team. Robinson, however, was not willing to go down without a fight even if his teammates felt otherwise dropping two clutch three-pointers in the dying seconds of the last quarter, 87-80.
The game at that point was too far out of hand with 10 seconds left and great all-around performance throughout every quarter gave the home team a very hard-fought win in the end.
Phoenix kept the game relatively low scoring, which is not the way the Lions prefer to play, the Lions love to score and in this game, the Phoenix really made it tough for the star-studded London club and kept them in check with an amazing 11 steals.
Rising East’s player of the game
A lot of the Cheshire players stepped up while most of the Lions players did not and this award could go to almost any of the Phoenix players but in our opinion, it has to be Kahron Ross with his 23 points on 46% shooting from the field and a big 5 steals, almost half of his teams steals.
