Raiders secure place in last four
The UCP Marjon Raiders displayed all the characteristics of a championship calibre team as they battled their way past the Guildford Heat and claimed a BBL Trophy Semi Final birth.
In a gritty, physical contest, it was the Raiders who came out on top with a dominant spell in the fourth quarter that saw the home side rack up 31 points and eliminate the Heat’s chance of inflicting a second straight Raiders home defeat.
The opening quarter was a close affair with both teams going blow by blow early on. Plymouth looked inside to Paul Williams for offence, which proved successful and soon warranted some heavy Guildford defence. A 4-0 run by the Raiders to start the game was quickly erased by a 6-0 Heat response, this was the pattern that followed until the closing two minutes of the quarter which saw Shingles come to life for the visiting team. His own 6-0 burst gave the Heat a 17-22 lead going into the first break.
Anthony Rowe continued to put pressure on the Heat’s interior defence as he hustled inside to put the first points of the quarter on the board. The Heat responded quickly with as a Margi three that sparked a 7-0 Heat run to stretch their lead out to ten. Baskets were hard to come by for a Plymouth team having difficulty figuring out how to attack a scrappy Guildford defence. The Raiders however, persevered and their effort was rewarded with another score inside by Rowe. This was proceeded by a beautifully placed pass by Anthony Martin to a running Paul Williams who converted on the break to cut the deficit down to six.
McLemore, Martin, and Ogedengbe lead the Heat with a physical and bruising style of play at both ends of the floor, Guildford were quite content to scrap and fight for their points and at the same time disrupt the Raiders offence with unrelenting defensive pressure. Dean Williams failed to convert a layup on the buzzer, and the Heat went into half time up 33-36.
A far more confident Raiders team started the third quarter with a patient offensive attack that saw crisp interior passing between the post players. Colbert and Williams found holes in the Guildford defence for uncontested scores. The Raiders opened up a 50-44 lead and looked set to keep stretching the distance between them and their now struggling opposition. A Paul Williams technical foul was the break the Heat needed; Williams who was a major influence in the Plymouth revival was forced to take a seat with 4 personal fouls. McLemore, Joseph, Shingles and Martin all stepped up with big points and the Heat strung together a 15-3 run to regain control and take a 56-61 lead into the fourth.
Anthony Martin lead a huge offensive surge in the fourth, as the Raiders made light work of regaining the lead. Martin pushed the ball and penetrated at will, causing mayhem to the once effective Heat defence. Martin found Rowe for a score before once again turning on the jets and scoring himself in traffic at the rim. With 4:09 left on the clock Martin went down hard and was not to return for the rest of the contest. Replacing him was Ben smith, who kept the Raiders offence ticking over as he coolly dispatched all his free throws to keep the Plymouth lead intact.
Shingles and Joseph converted on some tough scores at the other end and kept the Heat within touching distance. In the end thought it was not enough, The UCP Raiders kept their composure and closed out the game with cool heads to book themselves a spot in the knock out stages of the competition they won four years ago.
