Nurse's overtime helps put the pep into Tigers

Thames Valley Tigers moved back to the top of the BBL Championship table with a nail-biting 114-112 overtime win over Newcastle yesterday.

The Eagles' T J Walker had forced the extra period with a three-pointer on the final buzzer and Newcastle went on to lead 111-110 with 26 seconds remaining only for a two from Michael Nurse and a pair of free throws from Martin Gottfried to give Tigers a three-point lead.

With four seconds left Niki Arinze tried in vain to engineer a second overtime period for the Eagles by hitting his first free throw and then missing the second in the hope of scoring a two on the rebound. The ploy was foiled when the Tigers defence secured the ball to send Newcastle to their second defeat of the weekend.

The first defeat came at Brighton on Saturday night, when the Bears kept up their winning start to the season after running riot in the third quarter, hitting 41 points in 10 minutes that included a 17-0 run, to shatter a 64-64 tie. Randy Duck ended up with 32 points and Sterling Davis added 25 as the Bears won the second half by 22 points for a 119-99 win.

Sheffield Sharks took top spot overnight after handing Birmingham their sixth straight league defeat, by 73-68, with Jerry Williams scoring 21 points as the Bullets let a tied game slip in the last 3 minutes.

The Bullets fared better in yesterday's Trophy group match, winning 97-82 at Milton Keynes behind 25 points from Sullivan Phillips.

In the other Trophy ties, Stephan Sheckles continued his rich vein of scoring with 32 points as the Scottish Rocks all but ended the hopes of the National League upstarts Teesside with a 90-77 away win. Terrell Myers scored 28 points for London Towers as they edged out Thames Valley 104-89 on Saturday night.