Riders’ Sullivan pulls no punches about Worcester’s physical play

With a 148-141 semi-final win over the Worcester Wolves last night, Leicester Riders have found themselves on the brink of competing for their second trophy of the season, this time in the BBL Trophy Final.

The price of last night’s victory for the Riders will have been the sore bodies that are being rested today, as a result of a hard fought 40 minute game that saw several Riders players hitting the floor after uncompromising play from Worcester.

Worcester’s attentions appeared to be focused on Olympic athlete, Andrew Sullivan, who on three occasions found himself face down on the floor – the recipient of hard fouls.

Sullivan, 33, is unafraid of contact in the lane and has built his career around his willingness to sacrifice his body on both ends of the floor, something that his third-highest-number-of-free-throws-attempted-in-the-league bears out. But in the second-leg against Worcester, he was left needing more attention from the physio than from the officials, and has left Sullivan angry.

“At some points in the game last night it was a borderline street fight,” Sullivan explained 24 hours after reaching the Trophy Final.

“That’s how Worcester felt like they needed to play; they needed to be extremely physical to give themselves a chance. The fact that they went to the line 26 times to our eight is a microcosm of what they [the referees] allowed us to do the whole game. I’m one for physical contact and like a quite physical game but the referees have to allow us to play both ways.

“I also think that the league needs to do something about Kazlauskas. The night before, he elbowed Jorge to the head, intentional foul and it was blatant and then last night he elbowed me plainly in the throat and there was no need for it. He led with his elbow, he knew what he was trying to do.”

“The league needs to take a look at what Kazlauskas has done over the two games because we don’t want any thugs in our league.”

Sullivan’s frustrations in last night’s 68-66 loss, a defeat which saw the Riders’ calendar year-long unbeaten streak come to an end, weren’t confined to only Kazlauskas’ play or the officiating.

“There’s no way that Paul James can complain about the officiating considering the amount of foul shots they got awarded over the two games. He should never complain about officiating again when they play against us.”

Sullivan’s comments come in the same week that the Leicester Riders’ leading man took to social media site, Twitter, to voice his concern at the scheduling of games and the backlog that the current system creates.

Yesterday’s second-leg semi-final fixture meant that the previously scheduled game between the Leicester Riders and Newcastle Eagles was moved back, while the trip to the final on March 9th will require games against the Manchester Giants and London Lions to be postponed, adding further to the Riders fixture-list woes.