What a way to bounce back from the international break with
five epic games across the BBL Championship this past weekend, and some stellar
performances seeing four different clubs represented in this week’s All-Star
Five!
VJ King – Bristol Flyers
The Bristol Flyers were trailing going into the fourth quarter
against a spirited Cheshire Phoenix side who looked destined to deny Andreas
Kapoulas’ side a first-ever outright lead of the BBL Championship in the club’s
history, but a 10-point splurge in the final stanza from VJ King to round off a
32-point, 11-rebound performance was enough to see the Flyers faithful head
home happy as their team secured a vital dub and sit top of the table in the
Championship for the first time.
Elvisi Dusha – Plymouth City Patriots
This man is in the form of his life at the moment for the
Plymouth City Patriots, and Paul James’ side are reaping the rewards after a
duo of delightful dubs on the weekend saw the Pavilions club vault up the
Championship ladder into sixth place, tied on wins with the Manchester Giants.
A near triple-double against the Manchester Giants with 16 points, eight rebounds
and 17 assists followed a 22-point, nine-assists performance against Newcastle
on Friday night by Dusha and the volume of those numbers just shows you how
electrically Elvisi is playing basketball at the moment!
Antonio Williams – Plymouth City Patriots
After almost a month away from the court earlier in the
season due to injury, it was always going to take the ‘Booman’ some time to get
back into his rhythm upon returning to action and now, after five games away,
we’re seeing the very best of Antonio Williams once again as he was
instrumental in his side’s two-win weekend last time out. 21 points, nine
rebounds and nine assists against the Newcastle Eagles were followed up by a
further 19 points, six rebounds and four assists against the Manchester Giants
on Sunday afternoon – with a monster throw-down being the highlight of the
weekend’s action as well – and with every passing week, Williams is looking
more and more like the MVP candidate many tipped him to be at the beginning of
the year.
Bennett Koch – B. Braun Sheffield Sharks
A win and a loss was the way it fell for the B. Braun
Sheffield Sharks this past weekend, but Koch was big in both games as he gave
the Leicester Riders a number of problems live on Sky Sports – in a fixture
that was closer than the score line suggested – before notching a double-double
down in Surrey to get his side back to winning ways. With the BBL Cup taking
centre stage this coming weekend and the Sharks welcoming the Caledonia
Gladiators to Ponds Forge, Koch is in for a battle against Gareth Murray’s bigs,
but if he performs as he has done this weekend then he’ll be well-placed to
help Sheffield build towards a win.
Zach Jackson – Leicester Riders
Zach Jackson makes basketball look easy. He is shooting a
ridiculous 60% from the field this season which, when you consider the
difficulty of some of the shots he takes, is pretty incredible, and he showed
out once again this weekend on Sky Sports as he poured in a cool 17 points to
help the Riders take an important win over the Sharks. A busy week awaits
against the Gladiators in midweek in the Championship before the Newcastle
Eagles come to town to try and end the Riders’ defence of their BBL Cup title,
so Jackson will need to continue his rich run of form to help Leicester see off
those challenges.
Off the Bench:
Rahmon Fletcher (Manchester Giants), Maceo Jack (Cheshire
Phoenix), Jermel Kennedy (Newcastle Eagles), Rashad Hassan (Plymouth City Patriots),
Anthony Roberson (Manchester Giants), Kyle Johnson (Newcastle Eagles), James
Hawthorne (Plymouth City Patriots).
