BuzzerBeater Forums

D3 BC Norwich makes the semi's... Take a bow dude... That's one hell of an achievement.

The quarter finals are over and eight have become four. The games weren't necessarily the greatest but that doesn't detract from the winners' achievement in getting this far.

In the big game between the two former champions Tide of Fire beat Los Mikitos 105-92. The score doesn't quite tell the tale though as Tide had 7 minutes of garbage time after taking a 20pt lead. As always Luke Innes was the star for the Tide, missing only three shots on the night.

The other inter conference game saw the Doncaster Hawks take on M Dogs, and in this game it was the Great 8 team that was victorious. The Hawks outscored their opponents in each quarter on the way to a 117-98 win. Darryl Larsen led the way for the Hawks with 12 rebounds, 7 assists and 24 points. Gvozdenovic did his best for the Dogs with 40 pts but ended up on the losing side.

1st and 3rd in the Great 8 faced each other and the conference leaders won, Phoenix Warriors beating Gauson 107-92. Again the score was slightly skewed by 4th quarter garbage time, and like in the previous round, it was a team performance that won the day for the Warriors.

We have to go back a long way to find a semi finalist from division 3. The last time that happened was in season 5, 30 seasons ago, when Spartak MSK actually made the final. With ribs facing BC Norwich we were guaranteed a D3 team in the semis, though that shouldn't take anything away from the winners as its an achievement for any team to make the semis, let alone a D3 team. The winners turned out to be BC Norwich, who were confident enough not to crunch their opponents. They correctly predicted ribs offence and that helped them to a relatively easy victory by 129-97.

In the semis BC Norwich were paired with Phoenix Warriors, and Tide of Fire will play Doncaster Hawks.

Contrasting semi finals tonight, as we probably all expected but if we were expecting a repeat of the lack of excitement the quarter finals gave us, we were probably surprised by how close one of the games was.

BC Norwich, who have done D3 proud, found Phoenix Warriors just far too good, as indeed have a few EBBL teams this season, so there's no shame in that. In a performance that is typical of the Warriors the Norwich side found their offence stifled by a strong defence and their own defence was no match for tha Warriors team that can score from any position. On this occasion it was Warriors' SGs, Imray and Facto, who scored the majority of the points (53 out of 127) with Facto the backup scoring 28 of them. The Norwich cause wasn't helped by losing their two big men to foul outs, though it made no difference to the end result.

The other semi final was very different. Tide of Fire went in as big favourites against the Doncaster Hawks, and clearly they felt that way too. The Hawks employed a 2-3 zone, expecting the Tide to go inside, and indeed it restricted the Tide's inside offence but they were able to make us of their offensive flow to have 33 team assists for the whole game. The first half was a tight affair, the score at the end of the first quarter was 29-29, and by half time the Tide had eked out a 59-56 lead. Clearly the game was going to be a high scoring affair.

The third quarter was Tide's best, with them increasing the lead to 90-78 and though the Hawks were able to more than match the Tide in the fourth, they were able to hold on to an 11 pt lead, running out winners by 112-101.

As usual Innes top scored for the Tide but he was outscored on the night by Hawks' C Larsen. A quick look at the boxscore reveals that the Tide struggled when their starters weren't on the court, but they just weren't on court long enough for the Hawks to take advantage.

The two losers on the night deserve plaudits for getting this far in Norwich's case. Remember they're the first D3 team for 30 seasons to make it this far. And the Hawks did a fantastic job tonight in giving the Tide a proper fight, despite Hawks' owner Carolina28 saying after the game "I'm not ready yet."

The final is next of course, and it will be between what many will regard as the best two teams in the country this season. They're the two teams that are top of the conferences in the EBBL and may well be the finalists in the EBBL playoffs.

I think we all saw this coming and in the end it was possibly one of the more predictable finals but well done to both teams for getting here, and especially to Vecx, whose Tide of Fire have won this season's tournament by 112-89.

A lot of the damage was done in the first quarter, the Tide taking a 32-17 lead. Phoenix battled hard, closing the gap slightly to 13 by the time the fourth quarter started, but in the end they just didn't have enough to close further, against possibly the best team we've seen in England.

I don't normally comment on tactical choices as it seems unfair but with the Cup now being over it makes less difference, and while it may appear that Phoenix's gdp guesses made the difference, I think he was forced by the talent on the other side to make a guess in order to give him any chance of winning, and I think he made the guess most people would have made, me included.

The Tide simply have too many scoring options for any English team to stop them. MacAusland is a top player and the fact that he was 5th best scorer for the Tide today says it all. Innes and Huarong scored 24 each and though Facto for the Warriors top scored with 30, it never looked like being enough. Tide's OD keeping Phoenix's patient offence in check.

Again, well done to Vecx for his third cup win in 5 seasons.

Thanks Gulky and thanks for all these write ups, they have been great!

Thanks Gulky and thanks for all these write ups, they have been great!

That's Sulky to you!

WP Vecx, still got to win the games and you did.

Lol sorry Gully (Sully??). Monsters Inc... I'm on holiday so using a phone to type, apologies. Thanks Elmacca.