Manchester Basketball toppled the league-leading London Lions on the road 92-74 in the Super League Basketball Championship.

Kaiyem Cleary led Manchester in the Copper Box with 26 points in 28 minutes. He was backed by 16 from Max Jones and 14 from Tim Adetukasi. Adetukasi had a dominant night on the boards, grabbing 9 rebounds, as did Matt Nicholson, who had 8.

The visitors dominated on both ends. Offensively, the team went 12-25 from deep and shot 51% from the field, while holding the Lions to 38% from the floor.

London’s highest-scoring starter had just 13 points, so if not for 31 bench points on the night for the hosts, the scoreline would have been even more lopsided. Chasson Randle led their efforts off the bench with 20.

The third quarter is where Manchester did its damage. It was a closely fought encounter going into the half, with just three points separating the sides, but the visitors won the third 33-16 to establish a lead. Manchester came out of the locker rooms on an 8-0 run led by two buckets from Cleary, then scored 13 unanswered points near the end of the third to build their largest lead of the night, a 22-point advantage.

The game was all but over from there, as the sides traded buckets to the final buzzer and Manchester handed London their second defeat of the season. In doing so, they improved to 6-4 in the Championship.

Manchester return home on Sunday (21 Dec) for a festive double-header, hoping to make it a 3-0 week. They play the Surrey 89ers at 3pm at the NBPC in front of the second biggest crowd of the season.

You can get your tickets here!

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