Late Plymouth spell denies Jets

Plymouth Raiders’ late late show put to bed the hopes of a shock upset for Cheshire Jets at the Northgate Arena turning a nine point deficit on its head in the final quarter to claim a nine point win, 88-79, in the BBL Championship.

There were background stories aplenty heading into the game, with brothers Kai and Jamal Williams going head-to-head for the first time ever competitively, and also the return of ex-Jet and last year’s MVP of the league, Jeremy Bell.

Coach John Lavery knew it would take hard graft to achieve a result against the high flying Raiders, who are still within touch of league leaders Newcastle Eagles, and that is what his team provided for the first three quarters.

A strong start by Plymouth with Anthony Rowe’s shooting, and a tendency to be given one too many opportunities from the free throw line, helped Raiders edge the first quarter 24-17.

However, there were signs as the clock ran down in the first quarter that Cheshire were not willing to lie down and take a beating, as were to be proven.

The lead by Plymouth extended out to nine before Jets’ captain Colin O’Reilly helped bag 9 of the next 13 Cheshire points, and took them back to within just two points.

Points were traded before Keith Page stepped up and hit a three to bring in the defecit to just one. Yet again though, Plymouth were able to draw the foul and left a little breathing space going into the locker room at half-time 43-39.

If Raiders thought it was a welcome break, it was not to be as the Jets came out firing on all cylinders during the third quarter.

Preventing Bell from any free throw opportunities, with a combination of a dominating spell from Kai Williams, who without doubt won the battle of the brothers on the night, taking 10 points alone in the quarter; Cheshire midway through began applying much needed pressure and took the lead. Baskets were traded before Williams and Adam Brown, the latter scoring five points including a three, pushed the quarter end score to 70-61.

The crowd began to roar as Cheshire were in full control, and were looking well on their way with the momentum in hand to pull off a huge shock.

However, instantly the intensity vanished on court. It seemed as though a different team had stepped on court for the Jets and Plymouth took complete advantage. Shots rained in and in the blink of an eye, Plymouth were somehow ahead by one. And it got worse for the home fans.

O’Reilly edged the Jets ahead for the final time, before again Raiders came right back, with brilliant shot selection the score ticked over to 78-71. Bill Cole who achieved yet another double-double, hit two more points, but another five points from Plymouth made it seemingly impossible to chase the game at such a late stage.

Brown brought the deficit down to seven but Bell and Paul Williams pushed it out further again to ten. Schneck hit one of two from the line before baskets were traded, and the final seconds ran down.

It was a somewhat bemusing end to a game where Cheshire just simply imploded in the final quarter. More so, a bitter pill to swallow considering three Jets players achieved double-double stats.

Speaking afterwards Coach Lavery was wary of a fightback from Plymouth, but was disappointed with his side’s costly errors: “Basketball’s a 40 minute game. We played well in the third quarter, we knew they were going to make a run back at us but obviously silly execution down the stretch and a few bad mistakes probably cost us the game.

Jeremy Bell went to the line 11 times in the game, and top scored for the Raiders, did Lavery believe he was the key to the Jets’ downfall?

“You can’t single Jeremy out. Those guys went to the line 25 times tonight compared to our nine which is a bit disappointing. We need to attack them down the other end, especially when we can get them into foul trouble.

In terms of where it leaves his side, he does not believe this defeat is too much of a blow to their play-off hopes: “There’s a long way to go yet. We’ve got ten games left, there’s a long way to go. You look at all the teams that are around us, Guildford Heat have got to come here, Mersey Tigers have got to come here so one loss tonight is not going to end our season. We have to think positive and come out hard for the next ten games.”

Cheshire Jets: 17, 39, 70, 79
Plymouth Raiders: 24, 43, 61, 88
Jets: O’Reilly (24), Schneck (15), Cole (14)
Raiders: Bell (21), Rowe (19), Colbert/Jones/P. Williams (12)