Basketball: Bonds keeps Sharks on course at top

Jeff Bonds ensured Sheffield Sharks maintained their early season grip on the BBL Championship with 25 points last night in their 73-63 home win over Chester Jets.

Milton Keynes Lions moved ahead of Guildford Heat into second place with an 84-70 win over Leicester Riders, two wins behind the Sharks but with two games in hand. Tony Windless top-scored for the Lions with 19.

Sheffield, already four wins ahead of Newcastle Eagles, can cut the defending champions even further adrift when they meet tomorrow on Tyneside. Eagles coach Fab Flournoy is without injured American Jeremy Hyatt and is also having problems integrating new signing Tony Dorsey into the line-up.

Dorsey made his debut in last weekend's surprise defeat at Plymouth Raiders. Dorsey scored 12 points and took 10 rebounds, but unbalanced the Eagles offence by shooting once in each of the 20 minutes he was on court. Flournoy said: "Tony is a great player and I am still learning about his game from a coaching standpoint," before pointedly adding: "More importantly he has to learn about my system."