It’s looking like a three-way battle to be BBL champions

EAGLES FALL OFF THE PACE BEING SET BY RIDERS, LIONS AND RAIDERS

LEICESTER Riders bounced back after their heavy midweek defeat to Bristol Flyers with a nervy 90-87 victory at Manchester Giants to maintain their 10-point cushion at the top of the BBL Championship.

Just as important, the match saw the return from injury of Riders’ star guard Geno Crandall and centre Mo Walker.

Walker played for just over two minutes and scored his first basket in competitive play for over two years.

Riders had to overcome one of the performances of the BBL season from Giants’ American forward Justin Satchell, who made 13 of his 16 shots on his way to 36 points.

His scores included a series of shots from well beyond the threepoint line, as he made six threepointers.

With Newcastle Eagles unexpectedly losing at Surrey, the race for the title now looks a three-way battle between Riders, London Lions and Plymouth Raiders, with Raiders the form team in the league.

Riders head coach Rob Paternostro, right, was just pleased they found a way to win in Manchester.

“Yes, it was a good win for us up there,” he said.

“Give credit to Manchester – they shot the ball extremely well and Satchell went nuts.

“He scored 36 points and made a lot of very tough shots.

“I thought we controlled most of the game without ever really putting them away. “But they made a late run at us, and we had to really play some tough defence.

“In the last minute Jamell Anderson made a big defensive play on Satchell and Corey Johnson hit crucial free throws under pressure.

“It seems the majority of our games have come down to the last minute or so.

“It is one of those things, but we will take it and the guys are executing when it matters.

“William Lee was really excellent throughout and brought a lot of energy on both ends of the court. And it was nice to see Geno back, and hopefully we can build up his minutes in future games.

“It was especially nice to see Mo Walker get out on the court after such a long and frustrating time out.

“Hopefully, these guys can get more minutes going forward, and can adjust to the playing pace, and improve.

“We have a heck of a schedule coming up and so it is important we get contributions from everyone.

“We want to try and rotate as much as possible at this time of the season.

“We just now need to rest up and get ready for a really important game on Wednesday.”

Riders are next in action tomorrow night away at sixth-placed Worcester Wolves.

The teams spilt a pair of very close back-to-back games at the end of February, and Worcester pushed London Lions to overtime at the weekend before the Lions finally came out on top.