Surrey Scorchers secured a place in this season's BBL play offs with a ground-out win against the Manchester Giants on Thursday night, but it was a mixed week for the team as they suffered another major injury setback.
Firstly, the good news. Surrey Scorchers have booked their place in this season's play offs. Thursday night's 86-78 victory over the Giants made it official, as Andrew Lawrence put up 12 points in the fourth quarter to see off the hosts in an ugly game.
It was an up and down performance by Surrey, who endured a rough second quarter in which they only scored 9 points. Luckily the Giants, who have now lost their last eight games, were unable to capitalise on their home floor.
Evan Walshe erupted for the hosts down the stretch as they looked to end their losing run, however it was too little, too late as the Scorchers held on to claim their 13th victory of the season.
Before the game news broke that forward Emeka Obukwelu suffered a ruptured achilles during training. A recent recruit, the 25-year-old American only featured in four games before his season was ended prematurely.
Injuries in the front court have been a problem all season as the Scorchers lost Jordan Hunt to injury back in December. To compound matters, Abdul Mohamed suffered a leg injury during the game against the Giants. He played through the pain, but sat out the following night's game against the Newcastle Eagles.
Severely depleted the Scorchers travelled to the north-east on Friday night for the second game of a back-to-back. Unsurprisingly they were well beaten, with the Eagles winning by a massive 41-point margin. One bright spot for the Scorchers was seeing Nedas Cholevinskas get his first BBL points since arriving last month.
In the circumstances the Scorchers shouldn't dwell on that result for too long. Securing post-season basketball is a fine achievment for Lloyd Gardner and his players and it allows them to go into a tough run-in without too much pressure on their shoulders.
Their remaining games are against the current top five in the BBL Championship, starting with the visit of the Caledonia Gladiators on Saturday.
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