No playoff place means pride now at stake for Phoenix

It may all be over in regards for Cheshire Phoenix making a bid for the playoffs, but now it’s a matter of pride as they try to impress the Cheshire faithful in their final two games of the season.

The first being at home against Plymouth Raiders tomorrow night at the Northgate Arena, where a number of players who will take to the court will have had the pleasure of representing both sides.

Gavin Love’s Raiders will be hoping to make it two wins from two over the weekend after Friday night’s victory over bottom side Mersey Tigers. A North West double for the Devon team will boost their chances of staying in the hunt for a top 3 finish.

Captain Chez Marks, who together with team-mate Jerome Gumbs who have played in Plymouth green in seasons past, feels that every player on the current Raiders roster is due attention, but former players are in line to have more than an eye kept on them: “They are all key, Colin [O’Reilly] is a very smart, intelligent basketball player which is why he’s had great success, as well as Matt [Schneck].

“Matt gets those boards and gets it done, so these next few games are going to be hard but we have to stay together and roll with the punches.”

Head Coach Matt Lloyd has also pointed out how previous experience of the Northgate can be vital – just what this weekend’s visitors have in their favour: “Plymouth will be a tough team to beat and there will be battles all over the place; rebounds are always crucial in any game. The benefit that Plymouth have over any team that come to the Northgate are the players that have played there previously.”

It is a double edged sword though, as a previous showdown this season at home showed only a seven-point loss, and the aura of Cheshire’s home venue sometimes can be the deciding factor in games: “The Northgate is a tough place to come the crowd are great and make lots of noise, but also the facilities are daunting. There is nowhere in the league other than Cheshire that play with concrete floor and wooden backboards.”

One of the major points this season has been the short roster, and also the importance of the more experienced players staying out on court for longer, not that it had been the idea in the early stages of the season.

When James Hamilton came in as head coach at Cheshire Jets (as the franchise was then known), he would have hoped for the likes of Shawn Myers and Marks, to a lesser extent for the latter, would have played a more supporting role.

Four players for Cheshire have played over 1,000 minutes this season; Bland, Haskins, Marks and Myers.

43-year-old Myers has played every game, and averaged 36.7 minutes per game, which could have so easily have been a more impressive stat had the Mersey games been in this late stage of the season which such a short roster.

Marks said: “It was the plan for all of us; I wasn’t expecting to even play that many minutes per game. I’ve had to get my fitness right, train even harder so you can keep up with that intensity for that amount of time.

“You’re tired towards the end of the season after that amount of minutes because of only having six or seven players, but as my mother would say, I just have to get on with it!”

• Cheshire Phoenix face Plymouth Raiders on Sunday 24th March at Northgate Arena – tip-off at 5:30pm. You can win tickets to the game by clicking here and answering a very simple question!