Dekker leads Lions to hard-fought win over Gladiators

BBL Championship
London Lions 95 – 87 Caledonia Gladiators (22-26, 49-47, 68-71)
(Lions – Dekker 30, Zubcic 19, Soko 14; Gladiators – Adams 23, Sloan 22, Fraser 11)

London Lions had to work hard to get their second win of the season, fighting off a tough Caledonia Gladiators side that were very close to winning the game themselves. Although the Londoners didn’t control the majority of the game, they managed to clinch an end-to-end thriller, led by their leading scorer Sam Dekker.

The game was offence led from start to end, with the Scots starting out the better of the two sides. David Sloan hit two 3-pointers in the opening two minutes of the game and coupled with a further two 2-pointers, he had eight points within four minutes.

Caledonia were in control throughout the entire first quarter, managing to find good looks and led by as many as seven points (19-26) with just a few seconds left. Lions had possession of the ball under the Gladiators’ basket with just 0.5 seconds left on the clock, but that was enough for Tomislav Zubcic, who hit what was arguably the shot of the game… Receiving the inbound pass, the Croatian drained a buzzer beating 3-pointer to end the quarter 22-26.

The second quarter started in much the same way as the first, with the Scots in control of the game, despite London’s best efforts. Caledonia’s fast breaks helped them score easy baskets, led by Sloan who was the first player with double digits. Half-way through the quarter, the Scots managed to get their largest lead of the game, which was nine points (32-41).

That’s when Kosta Koufos stepped up and with five points in a row, managed to help his team claw back the deficit to just two points (39-41). Sloan wasn’t done yet however, and after crossing up Ovie Soko, drained yet another 3, bringing his total for the game thus far to 3/5 and his team up 39-44.

Lions weren’t going to give up in front of their home crowd though and with a run of 10-3, they managed to take the lead for just the second time in the game, going into the break up 49-47.

Despite finishing the half so strongly, Lions didn’t come out of the changing rooms with the same hunger as Gladiators did. Caledonia played excellent defence and managed to keep their opponents to their lowest points total of the game (19). On the offensive end, Alasdair Fraser must have had some of MJ’s secret stuff as he came out all guns blazing and scored nine points in just three-and-a-half…