Riders aim to bounce back from heartbreaking night
COACH WANTS TEAM TO LEARN THE LESSONS OF THEIR LAST-GASP DEFEAT TO LIONS
LEICESTER Riders go on the road in the BBL Championship tonight (7.30pm) when they take on Plymouth Raiders.
Riders will be looking to bounce back from their heartbreaking home loss to London Lions on Sunday.
It is the first time these two teams have met this season in any competition.
Plymouth was taken over by Turkish owners, who also own a team in the top-flight of Turkish basketball, near the end of the truncated 2019/20 season.
They are looking to end a 13-year drought of silverware on the southwest coast.
The club retained Leicester-born and former England international Paul James as head coach but undertook a major overhaul of the playing squad in the summer, after last season finished early, with the Raiders holding a 3 and 10 record in the BBL Championship.
That was despite some major new signings when the new owners took over in early February. One of the few returnees is former London Lions forward Will Neighbour, along with young guard Denzel Ubiaro, and 21-year-old Isaiah Walker comes back for his second season with the club.
The eye-catching summer signings included two high profile GB internationals that have previously shown their quality in the BBL.
Both Andrew Lawrence and Ashley Hamilton starred in different years at the ill-fated London City Royals.
Leicester-born Elliott Sentence made the switch from National League Team Solent Kestrels in the summer, after being a beaten finalist in the BBL Trophy last season.
Another former Royal, point guard Elvisi Dusha, makes a return to the club, along with forward Michael Ochereobia who has joined from Cheshire Phoenix.
London-born forward Prince Ibeh played in the German BBL last season and is joined by another dualnational in Ryan Beisty – who also played in Germany – as well as American shooting guard Chris Porter-Bunton.
Plymouth were knocked out of the BBL Cup in the quarter-finals by London Lions, after almost pulling off an upset, and are 3 and 4 in the Championship, hampered by an injury to star guard Lawrence.
Riders head coach Rob Paternostro wants his team to put that defeat to the Lions behind them quickly.
“It was a tough loss for us, no doubt about it,” he said.
“But I did not think we played particularly well throughout, so we have more to give.
“We showed in the second half what we can do defensively. We really improved and shut them down, particularly from the threepoint line.
“Two quick turnovers in the final minute destroyed us.
“Those games are the ones we have to get over the line, so we need to learn from that and quickly.
“These are the type of games you don’t want to forget and need to keep in the memory.
“Now we need to bounce back quickly against a talented group from Plymouth. They have some very good players with a lot of experience and maybe with a few things to prove.
“We know most of their guys, but have not played against them as a group, so we will need to key in again on our defence.
“There are a lot of games coming up in January, so being able to bounce back and learn from previous games quickly will be really important.”
Teams:
Leicester Riders: Corey Johnson, Jamell Anderson, Geno Crandall, Zach Jackson, Darien Nelson-Henry, William Lee, Conner Washington, Ali Fraser, Aaron Falzon, Greg Wild, Kyle Jimenez, Justin Hedley.
Plymouth Raiders: Ashley Hamilton, Chris Porter-Bunton, Elvisi Dusha, Will Neighbour, Prince Ibeh, Rickey McGill, Leon Neziri, Elliott Sentence, Denzel Ubiaro, Ryan Beisty, Liam Langridge-Barker, Michael Ochereobia.