Basketball: Jets shocked by Bears' resolve
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Your support makes all the difference.British basketball will not be put through the "Jetwash" this time around. Chester Jets, who won every title last season, failed to hang on to the first of their trophies yesterday when an under-strength Brighton Bears overpowered them 89-79 in the National Cup Final at the National Indoor Arena.
Bears' owner and coach, Nick Nurse, was true to his word. Injured duo Randy Duck, his club captain and influential playmaker, and Errol Seaman spent the entire game watching from the bench.
Nurse dismissed pre-game scepticism that both injuries would heal before tip-off: "I don't go in for that stuff. There's no doubt we were the underdogs but we outworked them." Nurse joins the Jets' coach, Robbie Peers, and now-retired Kevin Cadle as the only men to have a complete set of basketball's silverware.
The Jets, out-rebounded 50-37 and out-fought, strangely lacked passion and the game ran away from them at the start of the second half. They managed only four free throws from John McCord in six minutes, while Brighton's ferocious team rebounding provided the platform for Wilbur Johnson and Ralph Blalock to build a 14-3 run for a decisive 54-45 lead.
Peers tried to rouse his players into agression at a time-out. "If we go down, we go down aggressive," said Peers, before hastily adding, "not that we're going to go down." But the lack of belief was clearly contagious.
Blalock, a Cup winner with Leicester Riders two seasons ago, could have won the most valuable player award which instead went to Johnson, who finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds.
Sterling Davis (15), Rico Alderson (13), Mike Brown (12) and Emiko Etete (3), a beaten finalist last season with Birmingham Bullets, backed Blalock and Johnson in ensuring Duck lifted the Cup, after Nurse celebrated the win by joining the jubilant Bears fans in the crowd.
Blalock had 22 points while McCord had 28 for Jets, whose critical failures were John Thomas, two points, and Calvin Daivs, with three.
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