Giants shock their north-west neighbours
BBL Championship
Cheshire Phoenix 79-88 Manchester Giants (23-24, 38-52, 59-63)
Manchester Giants are finally up and running after they recorded a precious first league success of the 2017-18 season. The landmark victory tasted even sweeter since it came in a derby match-up at Cheshire.
Giants paved the way for the success with a huge second quarter and then responded when put under pressure heading into the last 10 minutes.
Leading Scorers – Gettys 31, Riley 21, May-Thompson 8 (Phoenix); Rettig 23, Kadiri 23, Okoro 11 (Giants)
Turning point – Giants were feeling the heat after the end of the third quarter and might have imploded under the pressure as Phoenix cut the gap to four. But instead, they produced a blistering 12-3 start to the last period and that effectively proved to their game-winning run.
Key stat – Phoenix just couldn’t get their three-point shot going and finished a miserable 3 of 18, while Giants only spilled the ball 8 times in the 40 minutes which was a big positive.
Game hero(es) – Callum Jones pulled the strings beautifully with 10 points and 9 assists, while Austin Rettig shone with 23 points. But, step forward David Kadiri with a massive 23 points and 13 rebounds.