Riders run rampant in BBL Playoff Final

Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders took home the trophy to complete a magnificent treble overcoming the reigning Playoff champions of 2011-12, Newcastle Eagles, with a confident 68-57 victory as the BBL returned to Wembley Arena.

Heading into the game, the Riders had been the victors of the four previous clashes this season and at the end of this contest, added another in front of a sell-out crowd that witnessed a first half epitomising the Leicester Riders, who executed their ‘stifling-defence-and-versatile-offense’ game-plan to perfection, holding the Eagles to just 11 first-quarter points as Newcastle struggled to get shots to drop, shooting 30% in the half (35% in the game).

The Riders’ 38-26 lead at the half could have been greater heading into the break but for a handful of blown Leicester lay-ups and fouls that allowed the Eagles to sink eight first-half free throws.

League MVP, Drew Sullivan, was the game’s leading scorer at the midway point with 14 points, while Kareem Maddox led the Eagles with 10 points. The 2011 BBL MVP, Joe Chapman, was just 0-for-2 as he struggled to get good looks, in the end finishing the night with just eight points.

At the start of the second half, the Eagles appeared re-energised (the result of rest at the interval or a dressing down from coach Flournoy for their first half failures?) and cut into the Leicester lead before a Riders revival pumped the lead back up to 12.

A gassed-looking Charles Smith tried to shoot his side back into the game but his long range heaves only served to add to the Eagles’ woes from deep, as Newcastle finished the game going 1/16 from three point range. As the quarter came to a close, the forward pairing of Drew Sullivan and Jamell Anderson, threw down statement dunks to give Paternostro’s side a 55-41 advantage heading into the final period.

Early in the fourth period the Eagles tried to haul themselves back into the contest but the Riders held them at arms length to see out the game and lift the trophy with a 68-57 victory.

As the buzzer sounded, the contrast that is present in every basketball game, was once again on display as the Riders bench bounded over the advertisement boards to storm the court in celebration while the fallen champions, the Newcastle Eagles, bowed their heads and retreated to their bench.

The play-off win is their third title of the season for the Leicester Riders having already collected the BBL Cup and League trophies earlier this year, while for the Eagles, their season is a rare trophy-less one.

Leicester Riders forward, Drew Sullivan, was awarded the MVP of the Final for his outstanding 24 points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Riders’ ringmaster, Rob Paternostro said of the Olympian’s efforts: “I thought Sullivan was tremendous early on offensively.

“In a game like this where scoring is hard, and this is how its way it’s been with these two teams, Sullivan’s effort in the first half put us at ease.

“It’s hard to single players because there’s always someone coming in with something,” he rounded off speaking to the BBC.

Barry Lamble, captain of the East Midlands side compared this year’s Playoff Final to the fixture last year and the disappointment that came with it: “We really believed we had this game. If we played how we played all season – tough defence, stuck together as a team – we knew we could take Newcastle. I think we had a little bit of doubt last year but we didn’t have any doubt this year.”

Lamble also went further when it came to the man of the moment, team-mate Sullivan: “There is no-one who deserves any more of the credit that he does. He’s worked so hard for it on and off the court. He’s willing to do all the little bits that not everyone is willing to do for MVP but he works hard. Grabs the rebounds, gets the steals, makes the plays and he just reads the game better. He deserves absolutely everything he gets.”

Losing out on another final to Leicester, Fab Flournoy lamented on his side’s defeat: “We fought hard and played hard throughout the game. I can’t say whether it was smart, the way we played, the guys played as hard as they could. I learned a lot as a coach. We need to make sure we learn from this.

“It shouldn’t have had no impact but it obviously did. I was hoping that it wouldn’t have no impact… Unfortunately, some times we didn’t do what I thought we could do.

“Through the close of the season,we never had our identity. The team that gets into the Finals is the team that exerts their identity and our identity changed throughout the course of the season,” Flournoy concluded.