Report by North Derbyshire Radio’s David Bell
The B. Braun Sheffield Sharks’ season came to an end with a 7 point aggregate defeat at the hands of Leicester Riders. A nervy first quarter saw the Riders overturn the Sharks three point first leg lead and the visitors pressed on to a 20 point advantage at one stage. Despite the Sharks losing Prentiss Nixon, Fahro Alihodzic and Jordan Ratinho to foul trouble, they did manage to pull to within 5 points of the Riders but it was 34 point standout Keddy Johnson who saw the game out to an 87-97 win on the day and a 168-175 aggregate victory. Nick Kern Jr was the Sharks offensive talisman with 32 points for the afternoon but even he was unable to prevent the close of the 2025-26 campaign for the South Yorkshire side.
The Sharks lead from the first leg was wiped out when Aaron Menzies laid in for Leicester with the score at 4-8. Keddy Johnson extended the gap from the line at 5-12 but the Sharks shook off early nerves when Troy D’Amico nailed three from the stripe to make it 13-15. Prentiss Nixon’s mid-range jumper closed the first quarter with Leicester ahead by 15-20 and by 96-98 overall.
The impressive Keddy Johnson stutter-stepped his way to the hoop early in the second period to make it 15-27 and force the Sharks into a timeout. Johnson and the Sharks’ Nick Kern Jr fought it out single-handedly on offence for the remainder of the half; Kern rearranging to make it 25-36 but with a mid-range pull-up from Johnson pushing the gap out to 31-45. Kern’s bucket closed the half with the Sharks behind by 35-47 on the day and by 116-125 overall at the break.
Leicester continued to emphasise their lead in the third quarter. Back to back threes from Flynn Boardman-Raffet and Keddy Johnson took the score out to 49-70 and their aggregate lead became 20 on a further Boardman-Raffet basket at 51-74. Prentiss Nixon hit the Sharks first three of the contest with 53 seconds of the quarter remaining and with a pair of Mike Ochereobia free throws, the Sharks went into the final stanza down by 56-76 and by 137-154 overall.
Boardman-Raffet’s second half display ranked up a notch as his basket made it 58-80 and a seemingly-unassailable 18 point advantage with 8 minutes to play. The frantic nature of playoff basketball saw Prentiss Nixon foul out, followed by Fahro Alihodzic and Jordan Ratinho but between times, Rodney Chatman III’s steal and score closed the on-the-day score to 81-89, a mere 5 point difference. However, with the Sharks having to commit fouls to stop the clock, it was Keddy Johnson who saw Leicester into a virtually guaranteed semi-final berth against London as the game closed at 87-97 and by 168-175 on aggregate.
A mere three makes from deep told heavy on the normally proficient Sharks shooting unit. Dirk Williams shot 41% on his way to 12 points and there was a notable 7 assists from Rodney Chatman III. The dependable Fahro Alihodzic weighed in with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal before sacrificing himself to the foul count but the final MVP award of the season went to the Sharks recent offensive talisman. Nick Kern Jr found a variety of athletic ways to reach the rim, going 13 of 19 from the field for a fine 32 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals and a blocked shot. Sadly his efforts were unable to save the season for the Sharks, bowing out at the quarter-final stage of the competition.
Image: Adam Bates
