BBL Trophy final: Caledonia Gladiators 73-70 Cheshire Phoenix - Gladiators' late win ends trophy drought
- Published
Caledonia Gladiators' BBL Trophy win was the Glasgow franchise's first piece of silverware since May 2003
The Caledonia Gladiators won only their second ever BBL silverware as they beat the Cheshire Phoenix 73-70.
David Sloan, who had missed from the same range with his previous attempt, drilled a three-pointer for the win.
It ended a near 20-year wait for the Glasgow franchise that won the 2003 Play-offs title but then went to 10 finals, losing all of them.
Jeremiah Bailey was named most valuable player having scored 16 points for the Gladiators during their victory.
Cheshire, who were the Trophy holders, were led by 12 points each from Larry Austin, Marcus Evans and Tahjal Teague.
The Phoenix were hoping to repeat their 2022 win in their 10th season as a franchise and Larry Austin, last year's most valuable player in Chester's shock win against London, again looked set to be their go-to player at the start of a tight, nervous final.
They led for almost all of the first half, but never managed to break the game open as the Gladiators' Jeremiah Bailey and Fahro Alihodzic worked hard on the offensive boards.
That continued in the third quarter, only with the Gladiators taking the lead but also unable to extend it beyond single figures.
With everything on the line in the fourth quarter, the intensity increased with only 10 points being scored in the first four and a half minutes, at which point Cheshire re-took the lead.
But to the delight of the 6,000 crowd at the Emirates Arena, Sloan's shot broke a 70-70 tie before the Trophy could produce a third overtime finish in the past five years.
"It was a real defensive game - it was always going to some down to who made the last shot," Sloan said to 大象传媒 Sport.
"It wasn't a lot of pressure - I was confident in myself and knew when it left my hand that it was going to go in. The first one felt like it would go in too."