London Lions couldn’t weather the Phoenix storm on Friday night and lost 87-80.

Cheshire Phoenix had very little time to recover from their last game out on Wednesday night and it showed, with the Lions coming out and firing on all cylinders, getting themselves to a 7-0 lead right from the tip off.

Since that early lead however, the Phoenix got their momentum back and rarely looked like giving up their grip on the game.

Matthew Bryan- Amaning really fired the Phoenix back into the game, going on his own personal run of six unanswered points. He managed to finish the game with 19 points.

There were five Phoenix players who all finished with double digits, proving that their win was a real team effort.

They were able to mount up more rebounds and therefore more second chance points than London, which proved to be vital in their victory.

The third quarter was the start of a comeback from the Lions, with a 15-0 run got the deficit down to within single digits.

Justin Robinson was instrumental yet again for the Lions, putting in a true captain’s performance and never looking flustered.

He was able to end the game with 24 points, 10 more than the second highest Lions scorer in Deandre Liggins.

The final quarter was a tense affair, with Cheshire wary of giving up another run to the Lions like they had at the start of the previous quarter which lead them to eat away at the shot clock and run down as much time as possible.

The Lions got within six points towards the end, but it was too little too late with Cheshire holding firm.

The Lions have little time to dwell on this loss and have to quickly set their sights on a Monday night, where they have a touch Quarter Final matchup in the BBL Trophy against Newcastle Eagles.