Lions are BBL Cup champions
Milton Keynes Lions are the new British Basketball League Cup champions.
They claimed their first ever piece of silverware after a nail-biting finish to their 69-66 win over Newcastle Eagles before hundreds of Lions fans at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, on Sunday.
Chief executive and coach Vince Macaulay was ecstatic afterwards admitting that he was going mad at his players to keep them calm as they saw a 12 point third period lead whittled away to just one point with 10 seconds left.
He said that he figured his team would want to keep their heads if they saw him geeing them on in animated fashion.
But it all could have been so different had Lions not recovered from a slow start with numerous missed chances seeing them slip to a 13-3 deficit at one stage in the first quarter. A timeout calmed the nerves and Lions slowly clawed their way back into the game to end the session four points adrift at 13-9.
Then it all started to click into gear for Lions as Tony Windless hit top form with four three point baskets out of four in the second period to steer the city side to a 24-15 session win – 33-28 overall. By this stage Eagles were increasingly relying on free throws following fouls to keep in touch with the opposition but could only net half of the 16 they were given in the first half of the game.
In the second half man of the match Kevin Griffin took over over where Windless left off with a series of three point throws while Eagles were having no luck from long distance – managing just two from 14 three point efforts during the whole of the game.
In the end it was Lions devastating form with three pointers that saw them home – 39 of the 69 points being scored from distance.
However it was edge of the seat stuff in the fourth quarter as Lions clung on after leading 57-45 at the third break.
The final 30 seconds saw Lions with a one point lead and Terrell Brown was called into possession basketball in the Eagles defensive zone – a move which eventually drew a foul for two free shots by Mike New. Both were netted giving Lions the three point advantage with five seconds remaining – and that was a step too far for even the Eagles to recover from.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
