Mixed weekend on the road for Raiders
Newcastle
The Newcastle Eagles made little work of pulling apart a weakened UCP Raiders team Friday night. The Eagles held Raiders in a vice like grip right from the opening tip, and only let go on the sound of the final buzzer.
Eagles smothered an unsuspecting Raiders side with stifling defensive pressure, and effortlessly turned their defence into easy offence with clinical precision in transition, against the flat footed Raiders.
Missing their sixth man, Michael Ojo, and with Jay Marriott and James Burchell not travelling, the Raiders were left with a 7 man rotation to face an Eagles team who implemented a strategy of frequent substitutions, and relied on their deep bench to provide constant and instant energy.
The home side opened up a 24-8 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. For Plymouth, the opportunities to score were there, but the ball simply would not drop. Lack of scoring lead to frustration and the Eagles sensing this despondency went in for the kill and kept extending Plymouth’s deficit.
Point guard, Paul Gause controlled affairs for the Eagles, knowing when to push the ball, when to attack and when to hold things up, his game was smooth and poised, and at times he simply toyed with the Raiders guards, treating fans to a series of crossovers and fancy finishes inside.
In comparison, last year’s MVP Jeremy Bell looked out of sorts, Bell attempted numerous tough shots throughout the game and often played right into the hands of the Eagles defence.
Down 49-28 at the half, a big push by the Raiders was needed to start the 3rd period. This wasn’t to be, the Eagles refused to let the Plymouth side eat into their lead, and despite winning the quarter by a point, the writing was already on the wall.
It seemed that everyone in attendance at Sports Central knew how the final quarter would play out, and even with two junior players taking the floor together, the Eagles stayed in command as Plymouth dutifully played out the last quarter, turning their attention to righting their wrongs against Durham the next day.
The final margin of 23 was a fair reflection of a game dominated by the undefeated Eagles, and although a tough loss to take, all Plymouth can do is learn, move on and take solace in knowing that they have three more cracks at the defending champions.
Durham
Less than 24 hours after their disastrous meeting with the Newcastle Eagles, the UCP Raiders found their stride and snatched a win from the Durham Wildcats in a highly competitive contest.
Putting their shooting woes from the previous night behind them, Raiders connected on 81% of their efforts from the line, whilst shooting 51% from the floor. Jeremy Bell in particular finding his form and registering 31 points, shooting a blistering 75% on a combination of tough fallaways and contested finishes inside.
Capocci and Flaherty kept the scoreboard ticking over for the Wildcats who were aided by timely contributions from their young English prospect, Paul Elderkin.
Yet again Plymouth were slow to start and found themselves trailing in the early phases before putting together a 12-4 run and looking dominant as they took full advantage of their superior size, attacking the rim hard whenever possible.
Full of fight and gutsy courage, the BBL new boys weren’t about to let their established opponents have an easy night, and they found themselves up three to end the quarter 21-18
The lead quickly swelled to eight, and the Wildcats were brimming with confidence as they threatened to pull away from the slumping Raiders. Success however, was short-lived as a rejuvenated James Jones and ever deadly Bell quickly eradicated the Durham lead.
Never lacking in energy, Durham stunned the visitors to open the half with an offensive outburst that saw them go up 55-45. Plymouth, with memories of the night before still fresh in their minds, fought back strong. Honing in on their defence and finding some much needed continuity in their offence, the Raiders took a 63-59 lead into the fourth.
Durham still had some fight left, and although down by as many as ten with time running down, they summoned the strength needed to make one last push. The lead was down to three with under ninety seconds to go, Durham had the opportunity to add further misery to Plymouth’s weekend, but poor decisions down the stretch saw Plymouth capitalize, and hold on to take a much needed 80-75 win.
