Raiders chasing a place in BBL semi-finals
PLYMOUTH Raiders coach Paul James is hoping the pain of losing the BBL Trophy final can spur his side to glory in the BBL play-offs this month.
James’ side have been in superb form since the turn of the year and cemented their place in the play-offs several weeks ago. They then secured a third place finish in the BBL standings – their highest ever placing – which sets up a two-legged quarterfinal with Worcester Wolves.
The first leg is in Newcastle tonight (7.30pm tip-off) before the second leg is played in Worcester – something James Is not happy about – on Thursday. But having come so close to success in March, when Raiders reached the BBL Trophy final, only to lose to London Lions, he wants to go one step further this time around.
“I am really proud of the team and they have really bought in to what we are trying to do and it has not been without its challenges either, as we lost Prince Ibeh, who is not with us now and Denzel Ubiaro is no longer with us,” James said.
“We have also had to find ways to win games without Andrew Lawrence, all season long, so we have been through some adversity this season and I think it had made us tougher mentally and physically.
“It has been a tremendous season for us and it hasn’t finished just yet.
“To be fair, the new owners have come in and backed us. We got to the BBL Trophy final, where we didn’t really do ourselves justice, so we have had a taste of that now and we are hoping for more.”
Raiders paid the price for a wretched first half in that final, where they found themselves 14 points behind at half-time and trailing 52-38. They were much improved in the second half and they ultimately lost the match 88-82, but the harsh lessons learnt that day are Raiders’ motivation this time around.
“We really didn’t perform in that first half of the Trophy final and that is where the damage was done,” James said. “It was a bit of stage fright, I think, because the guys really didn’t perform to the best of their ability. But we regrouped and gave it a really good shot, came close, but it wasn’t to be in the end.
“We felt that loss quite badly because we didn’t perform to our best abilities for the full 40 minutes but we still got very close to beating London. Now, we want to get through these rounds and try and get to another final and go one better.
“If you don’t fail you can’t improve, can you? That is part of growing up and being part of a mature team, but we all learnt from that game and all know we could have done things differently and we would do it differently if we could get that time back. We can’t, so we have to take it and use it as motivation moving forward.”