Manchester Giants suffer a heart-breaking loss in the final second as they lost to the Plymouth Patriots 77-76.

‍Paul James and his Patriots welcomed Lloyd Gardner and the Manchester Giants to the Plymouth Pavilions for another fixture in the BBL Championship. It was a slower start to the game for Manchester with the first points for the giants coming a minute and a half into the ball game with Geno Artison knocking down one of his free throws, Jamell Anderson followed up with a make of his own followed by a three in the next possession to give Manchester an early lead.

One of the lower scoring quarters for both teams with defensive efforts being at the forefront of teams minds today, both teams making each-other put up contested shots. Neither team has managed to push ahead and take the game by storm in this quarter with the biggest lead being 6 points in the way of Manchester.

The Giants finished the quarter up by 2 with many chances to push further ahead after missing multiple free throws in the quarter. The Second quarter picks up where the first left off with Jamell Anderson being a thorn in the patriots side as he kept Joe Hart quiet in the opening stages, tipping the passes and not allowing a good look for shots.

A short stoppage in the game as referee’s rule in favour of the Giants as some patriots may see as a controversial call as an Ayodeji Adekunle lay up is swatted away from Dan Clark to the annoyance of Patriot fans and players alike. Antonio Williams and Rashad Hassan brought the lead back and surpassed it from an and one and worked their play into the paint.

Tyrik Armstrong however silenced any potential for a momentum shift as he sunk a three and kept both teams side by side with little to separate. Despite the positive open play, free throws still plagued the Giants in the second quarter having hit 47% of free throws this half. The Patriots looked to gain a bit of ground as they led by 7 with a minute and a half left in the quarter.

The Giants head into the half time break down by 4 after Geno Artison receives a pass from Tyrik Armstrong, Artison fakes the defender and hits the three ball, beating the buzzer to remind the Patriots that this isn’t over. Both teams quickly scored to kick this second half off. The Giants are looking lively in this quarter, turning sound defence into quick and efficient offence pushing the ball down the court with speed to catch the patriots off guard and score quick and easy baskets.

Alongside the quick transition play, the Giants managed to move the ball quickly on offence to find the wide open man for the basket which found Giants all time leading scorer Callum Jones at the line for two. A slower period began as neither team wanted to give away an inch in this game. The Giants managed to tie up the game at 47 a piece through some more silky ball movement which found the open man, this time that was Jamell Anderson in the left corner for a wide open three.

The smart passes and movement continued through Dan Clark finding Josh Steel on the backdoor cut to take the lead. After Dan Clark pokes the ball away from the Patriots, GB internationals Dan Clark and Josh Steel connect once again on a backdoor cut. The third quarter is in the books with Manchester back on top and ahead by 4 as they outscored their opponents 16 points to the Giants 24 in the quarter.

Dan Clark shoots the midrange baseline jumper off an offensive rebound to kick off the business end of this game, extending the lead to 6 with Tyrik Armstrong and Will Saunders sinking buckets to take the Giants into their first double digit lead in this game to an lead of 11 placing them firmly in the driver seat.

Momentum shifted in favour of the Patriots as Kofi Josephs began to take over and facilitate the Plymouth offence scoring 9 points in the quarter to claw the lead back paving the way for what was to be an entertaining and nail-biting finish. With less than 30 seconds left, Rowan Graham-Bell puts the Patriots up by 1 leading to a timeout from Lloyd Gardner.

The head coach of the Giants drew up a play that led to a Josh Steel three with 6 seconds left that was highly deliberated for a shot clock violation. The Patriots then took a timeout of their own and off the inbound gave the ball to Antonio Williams who double clutched a three and sunk it off the backboard at the death. J

osh Steel led all scorers tonight as he finished with 18 points on 63% from the field. Followed closely by Tyrik Armstrong who put up 17 points on 70% from the field. Jamell Anderson also had an impressive night as he was all over the place with 10 points, 4 rebounds and a pair of steals.

Head Coach Lloyd Gardner said ''A relatively good performance from us, some things we had to get better at in the first half. Defensively overall pretty good. The third quarter I thought we started to move the ball alot better, we started to move well.We built a lead but unfortunately it was a close game and it was always going to be against a tough team. They just made the shot at the end, we made one like that one against them last time now they’ve made one in return.''

After the international break, The Manchester Giants are against the Bristol Flyers on March 4th back in Manchester at the National Basketball Performance Centre