Basketball: Peers' grip on BBL Trophy severed as Towers are defeated

Robbie Peers' hold on the BBL Trophy is over, but his former club, Chester Jets, are one game away from winning the title for a fourth consecutive season after the semi-finals at Sheffield's Ponds Forge on Saturday.

Robbie Peers' hold on the BBL Trophy is over, but his former club, Chester Jets, are one game away from winning the title for a fourth consecutive season after the semi-finals at Sheffield's Ponds Forge on Saturday.

Peers coached Chester to the title in the last three seasons but his new club, London Towers, lost 86-73 in the first semi-final to Brighton Bears, who return to Sheffield for the final on 13 March to face the Jets after their 91-85 win over Scottish Rocks. The Jets struck an immediate psychological blow with a 72-69 win over the Bears last night in the BBL Championship.

By the time they meet in the Trophy Final, however, Brighton's Randy Duck will have returned from injury.

On Saturday, Sullivan Phillips, with 21 points, led Brighton to victory by scoring the game's last eight points to seal their win over Towers.

After trailing the Jets 51-33, Rocks recovered to 72-71 down at the end of the third quarter, but Billy Singleton, Calvin Davis and Michael Nurse combined to give Jets a 7-0 start to the fourth and they stayed in control.

In the EBL First Division, the leaders, Plymouth Raiders, avenged last weekend's National Trophy defeat against Sutton Pumas with a 93-61 win after racing to a 17-3 lead.

Manchester Magic could be the biggest threat to Raiders after they swept Sheffield Arrows aside 90-52 at the John Amaechi Centre on Saturday. The Arrows forced Manchester into a tense opening quarter to trail 17-16 before baskets by Callum Jones and George Parisso settled the home team in front of a large crowd.