'Atmosphere was crazy' - Jordan Ratinho and Parker Stewart call on Sheffield Sharks to harness the power of the Canon Medical Arena

The Sharks marked their maiden game in the £14m Canon Medical Arena in Attercliffe with a thumping 86-56 victory over long-time rivals Newcastle Eagles in the British Basketball League on Sunday.

They reserved their best performance of the season for their home opener in front of a sellout, 2,000-strong crowd.

Having come out fast after all the build-up that went into a historic day for the club, point guard Ratinho is urging his team-mates to make sure it is no one-off, starting this coming Sunday when Caledonia Gladiators step into the Sharks’ arena.

“That first game couldn’t have gone any better,” said the 25-year-old American now in his fourth season with the club.

"It was a great environment, a big first win for us in the new arena and it gives us a bit of a boost going forward.

"We couldn’t have asked for a better crowd, hopefully we keep getting good turnouts and we can give them something fun to watch each game.

"I think the crowd have inspired us to build on this and play like that every single game.

"It was a really exciting day. We’ve been able to play a few scrimmages in here, we’ve been waiting a long time to play our first game in here and we really took advantage of it, so hopefully we can keep building on it and make this a tough place for opposition to come to.”

Ratinho shot one of four from three-point range which is below his average, and only added one more two-pointer, but with firepower coming from various other sources – four Sharks players scored 13 points or more – Ratinho could demonstrate his defensive skills in his 30.19 minutes on court.

"We’ve always stood by our defence, we’ve been playing really good defence," said Ratinho.

"And I think Sunday (against Newcastle) our offence was clicking as well. We were moving the ball, we were trusting each other and it showed on the court.

“We were playing with each other, for each other, everyone was making the right plays and playing unselfishly and anytime you’ve got a group of guys playing like that you can do good things, so we’ve just got to keep doing that and keep moving forward.”

The unerring three-point shooting fell to other players, with British prospect RJ Eytle-Rock scoring on all three of his attempts, Kipper Nichols adding a couple and summer recruit Parker Stewart draining two of five. Stewart, the 6ft 5in shooting guard, was making his home debut and with this being the 25-year-old’s first assignment overseas, it was quite the atmosphere to walk into at his new home venue of the Canon Medical Arena.

"It was exciting to get out there and play on our home court for the first time,” said Stewart.

"It felt good to be in our own gym with our own fans cheering us on. I was kind of surprised by the atmosphere, I didn’t think it would be so crazy but I enjoyed it a lot.

"We haven’t had a big win like this yet so it was important to show what we can do as a team.”