Raiders move to 6-2
UCP Marjon Raiders took a convincing 17 point win against the Mersey Tigers on Sunday afternoon, with the home town team racking up triple digits for the second consecutive time against the Mersey outfit, and move to a 6-2 record in the championship.
The Raiders came storming out of the blocks, former Tiger James Jones stuck it to his old team notching up a quick five points, converting on his first three point attempt of the game. The Raider lead stretched to 12-2 and feeling like the game was quickly slipping away in front of him, Tiger boss Tony Garbelotto, called a time out and switched things up defensively, coming back out in a zone in an effort to clog up the gaps inside and force Plymouth to find other scoring options. This proved to be effective, the Raiders scoring slowed right down, whilst the Tigers got hot and went up 25-18 late in the first.
In quarter number two, Raiders second unit guards Anthony Martin and Michael Ojo, brought an abundance of energy to the floor as they pushed the ball and pressed up against the Tiger guards, the Raiders quickly re-established a lead at 30-25, and they never looked back from here.
Jones, despite struggling to get into a shooting rhythm, found other ways to impact the game offensively, the 27 year old Brit showed his ability to see the floor as he racked up a game high 7 assists. Colbert and Rowe both beneficiaries of Jones vision in the second quarter, and scoring inside off his feeds, the half ended with Raiders up 50-37.
The confidence grew and so consequently did the lead, and at 77-60 at the end of the 3rd, the Raiders looked home and dry. The Tigers had some strong individual performances, young Great Britain point guard Devan Bailey notably more productive than in his début performance at the Pavilions the week before, and the ever consistent David Aliu proved he could still play with the best – although he did need 17 shots to score his 17 points.
Up 89-66 midway through the 4th, the weary Tigers looked down and out. They gave it one last push, and with it a minute remaining trimmed the lead to 11. However, not content to give their visitors any sort of moral victory, the Raiders made a couple of scores and iced their free-throws to pad their lead out to 17, taking the game 101-84.
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