BBL: Lions roar to double success

London Lions tasted success in both the BBL Cup and BBL Championship this weekend with wins against Surrey Heat and Durham Wildcats.

Vince Macaulay’s side went into the weekend still searching for their first win of the campaign with a 95-91 victory over the Surrey Heat on Friday before progressing to the Cup quarter-finals with a dramatic 79-76 win against Durham Wildcats at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Coach Macaulay was understandably happy with the wins, saying: “We are delighted to get off the mark, we know this is a work in progress, we haven’t had a pre-season so this is it for us, but being with key injured players made us come together.

“My forwards were terrific and led us from the front, Tayo [Ogedengbe], Duane [James] and the mercurial Orlan [Jackman], having said all of that, Mike Martin was not going to let us lose to Surrey. The fans were terrific, it was good to see former fans of London teams come up and cheer us on, I’m excited I think London going to be great.

An impressive 27 point haul from Ogedengbe against Heat was the stand-out performance for the home side, while Chavis Holmes bagged 24 points for the visitors in the defeat. Against Wildcats, Macaulay’s team were almost sent to overtime by the valiant visitors who had trailed by ten points with just 70 seconds remaining but just failed to convert a three-point shot to tie in the last seconds when Paul Elderkin couldn’t get it to drop.