Sheffield Sharks captain Mike Tuck says his team are ready for a "Challenging month ahead"

Sheffield Sharks captain Mike Tuck says his team are ready for a challenging month ahead after a hard fought win in the War of the Roses game against the Manchester Giants.

The Sheffield Sharks started a run a seven games with a tough 12 point win against bottom of the league Manchester Giants.

The win saw the Sharks climb to fifth in the BBL, where as the Giants sit rock bottom still searching for their first win of the campaign.

With a tough week in training following a defeat to the Leicester Riders Tuck said: “The mood in camp is great, obviously with Mackey being away last weekend with family bereavement but he’s back now so that’s brought an energy back to the club and we’re been training hard this week and ready for a challenging month ahead.”

The Sharks flew out of the blocks and went into a solid lead but the Giants came fighting back and the first quarter drew to a close with the Sharks 23-19 up.

The second quarter started with the Giants being on the front foot and raced into a 31-32 lead however the hosts had the physical presence of Bennett Koch and the unstoppable Nick Lewis and Rob Marsden which saw them lead 53-39 at halftime.

After the break the Sharks had to stop the Giants from trying to overturning the first half deficit and found themselves in physical contest but the power of Nick Lewis, Rob Marsden and Connor Cashaw upfront for the Sharks saw them go into the final quarter leading 74-56.

The Giants refused to lie down in the final quarter but the Sharks once again proved to powerful for them and ran out 92-80 winners.

He said: “It was an ugly win but obviously a good win for us to start March off on the right foot.

“We had to grind it out, I thought with Mackey being away and coming off a loss last week it was just a little bit of a tough one for us but the fans were great tonight with a full house rocking at Ponds Forge helped us get over the line tonight, Manchester are still searching for their first win so we knew they going to come out and play hard so just really happy with the overall performance.”

On ‘March Madness’ Tuck said: “I mean you look forward to it, obviously I would rather play a game than practice any day but it’s a lot of games in a short amount of time so I’m just concerned about staying healthy with injuries and just time management with all our key players.”

The stand out players for the Sharks this season have been Nick Lewis, Connor Cashaw and Mackey Mcknight and Tuck feels that they have been a crucial part of the team this year.

“They’ve been incredible, they’ve been great guys on and off the court, when one guy is having an off night, the other two will step up so they are a pretty deadly trio in the guard position.”

As the season draws to a close, the Sharks hope to try and build momentum before the playoffs.

“We’ve just got to try and win as many games as possible and start bumping up that BBL ladder, we are sitting a little low right now, we would like to get a higher seed and then head into the playoffs with some momentum” said Tuck.