The City of Sheffield Saints travelled to Liverpool on Sunday for a clash with the Sefton Stars at Fernhill Sports Centre. In front of an expectant Sefton crowd, the Saints came away with another comfortable victory to see them remain at the top of EBL 4 North with an unblemished 5-0 record.

Because of a delay in the Saints kit arriving at the cramped Sefton venue, the Saints were only allowed a brief 10 minutes to warm up, and in the cold of the Fernhill Centre, this showed as turnovers allowed Sefton to jump out to an early 4-0 lead. However, 6 unanswered points from Pete Olusoga and 2 more from Chris 'Tilly' Hackett saw the Saints take control of the game, leading 8-4. As Sefton struggled from the foul line, Chris Law laid the ball in from a Garnet Gayle pass at the other end, Gayle scoring himself on the next play to extend the Saint lead to 12-4. There was some response from Sefton through Diop, but some great defensive pressure from Franz-von Shorter off the bench stifled Sefton's offence and, as Gayle connected from the foul line, Hackett continued to dominate inside and Law converted another fast break seeing the Saints take a 18-11 lead into the second period.

Sefton rallied in the second quarter as more mistakes began to creep in to the Saints' offence allowing the Stars back into the game. A 9-2 run in favour of the home team was capped by a 3 pointer from Diop. However, Hackett broke Sefton's run and back-to-back 3 pointers from Olusoga extended the Saints lead to 28-24. Sefton's captain, J.M. Nation, scored 2 from the charity stripe and Adams then tied the game at 28-28. 4 points from Embaye gave Sefton the lead and, as the Saints continued to struggle from the foul-line, they trailed 32-31 at half time.

After a slow start to the 3rd quarter, the Saints began to dominate their younger opponents. Hackett and Andy Turner combined for 6 straight points and Sefton could only manage 2 points from the free-throw line in 4 minutes. Nick Savage provided some size inside for the Saints as Hackett was forced to leave the game with an elbow injury, but Turner kept up the scoring inside for the Saints as they repeatedly broke a weak Sefton full court press. Another 3 pointer from Olusoga and a Chris Law lay-up gave the Saints their biggest lead of the night 54-39. Dean Griffiths and Chris Allott came into the game for the Saints, Griffiths rebounded well as always and Allott provided another outside threat to worry the Stars team as the Saints lead 58-43 at the end of the 3rd.

The Stars rallied yet again in the 4th quarter but failure to capitalise from the foul-line meant the Saints were comfortably ahead, 4 points from Allott put the Saints 64-48 in front with just 5 minutes remaining. However, the Stars weren't finished yet and the young team, it has to be said aided by some choice calls and no calls from the referees, went on a 9-0 run to bring them within 5 at 64-59. That was as close as Sefton got though as Chris Law drove through the lane to score easily at the basket and Gayle made enough free throws to keep the Saints 68-61 in front at the final buzzer.

The Saints play host to Tyne Met Trojans on Saturday at All Saints School and will hope to carry on their run of wins. Coach Olusoga is looking for an improved performance from his side though as the Saints have managed to win without playing to their capabilities in the last 2 games.

Scorers
Saints
Hackett(20), Olusoga(16), Gayle(11), Law(10), Turner(7), Allott(4)
Sefton Stars
Adams(15), Diop(14), Embaye(10)

Posted on: Monday 4th December

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