9th March 2008 SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks 110-63 Birmingham Panthers

BBL Championship Match Preview

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The SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks snapped a four-game losing streak in beating the Team Birmingham Panthers 110-63 at Braehead Arena, the largest winning margin that the club has ever achieved against a Birmingham franchise. For the fifth-placed Rocks, it maintains their challenge for a top-four finish and homecourt advantage in the BBL Championship Playoffs.

Maurice Hampton led all scorers as he shot 6/7 three-pointers on his way to 24 points, whilst point guard Rob Yanders added 20 and Julius Joseph had 17. LaTaryl Williams scored 20 points for the visitors.

The result was never in doubt as the Rocks asserted themselves on the game from the very beginning with a 16-3 opening that was inspired by 9 points from Rob Yanders. They held their visitors to just 6 points in the opening period, whilst scoring 25 themselves.

Yanders continued to set the tone in the second as the Rocks opened 7-2, and they soon led 39-13. Hampton hit one of his five triples in the quarter, and that was followed by a dunk from Gareth Murray as the Rocks led 51-15, which became 57-21 at the halfway point.

Panthers rallied in the third, but were halted in their tracks by further triples from Hampton and Murray, as the score became 69-28. The Panthers showed some fight to close the third stanza with a 14-4 push; LaTaryl Williams had 11 of those points, and Cameron Wright hit a three-pointer on the buzzer to round it off.

However, the Rocks did not take their foot off the gas late on and back-to-back triples from Bilal Clarance sent them over the 100 mark to send a message to the Panthers, whom they face once more in their next game.

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