Leicester Riders look to take advantage of suffering Surrey Heat

The BBL Trophy represents the second chance of the season for teams to reach a Final and win some silverware and tonight, the Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders and Surrey Heat meet at the Surrey Sports Park to contend for a place in the semi-finals of the Trophy.

Tonight’s meeting will be the second time in 12 days that the two sides have met, with the last encounter finishing 88-58 to the Riders. The Heat were struggling with health on the night as Chavis Holmes (groin) was sidelined and former-Leicester man, Frank Holmes, was less than 100% due to a sickness bug that he contracted moments before tip-off.

Heat Coach Creon Raftopoulos is expecting to have the Holmes-pair back for today’s fixture, which is perfect timing as Coach Raftopoulos believes they will need to feature heavily in the game if the Heat are to repeat their 81-74 win over the Riders from earlier in the season.

“He’s (Chavis) got over his injury. Psychologically he’s in the right place. He’s back to being his old self. He’s leading the team, talking and I can count on him on Friday night,” said Coach Raftopoulos before continuing. “Frank is looking well. He’s coming off a stomach virus but he’s looked really good in practice.

“Not to put too much pressure on him but I’ve singled him out as being a very important player in order for us to get a result against a very good Leicester team. He’s got to be the dominant player he was earlier in the season. He’s a genuine inside presence that allows people to play defence with the peace of mind that if they get beat, he’s going to come across and play some help-side defence. When he’s pumped up, he gets everybody else pumped up.

“Chavis Holmes is our captain but Frank Holmes brings the energy.”

The Heat’s efficiency inside has been a sore point for Coach Raftopoulos of late, with his team being outscored 56-18 and hitting only 25% of their shots in the paint in their last meeting with the Riders. An improvement inside was seen in their win over the Wolves though, as they outscored their opponents close to the basket, 44-34.

The return to full health of both Chavis and Frank is well-timed with fresh concerns over the health of centre, Peter Simek and guard, Caylin Raftopoulos, both of whom have suffered with the flu this week. Their availability will be a late-game decision.

Leicester Riders coach Rob Paternostro hasn’t experienced a lot of losing this season with his side sitting second in the league with a record of 15-2. But the January Coach of the Month award winner says the one loss he still feels, is that of centre John Fraley, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in late November.

“For us, what’s been so nice about our season so far is that there’s no-one that has come across as satisfied,” Paternostro said. “We’ve obviously had a big win in the Cup Final a few weeks back and since then we have not had one drop-off through intensity or stops in the pursuit of getting better.

“We lost a leading rebounder in the league, a guy that was averaging 18 points a night, which I feel people forget. We’ve been able to continue to play well but we did suffer a major blow for a considerable amount of time by losing John, who I felt by the way he started, was going to be right up there in the MVP race.

“It’s been admirable that our guys, even though we lost a major part, were able to keep it rolling and play.”

Tip-off at Surrey Sports Park is scheduled for 7:30pm.