Defeat, but young Riders earn valuable minutes
HEAD COACH PATERNOSTRO ON BBL CUP LOSS THAT STILL LEAVES HIS SIDE IN LAST EIGHT
LEICESTER Riders are through to the quarter-finals of the BBL Cup, finishing second in the South Group with a six and two record after their second defeat of the season to London Lions on Sunday.
The quarter-finals are played over one leg and Riders will play the team that finished in third place in the North Group, Cheshire Phoenix at the Morningside Arena on Saturday (8pm).
Riders played London without the services of the injured Marc Loving and Darien Nelson-Henry and found it difficult to keep the bigger Lions team off the boards.
Head coach Rob Paternostro was reasonably pleased with the effort of his team, saying: “I was a little disappointed with the first half and particularly at the defensive end, but you have to give London credit.
“They shot the ball really well in that first half and you can see why they are being so successful in Europe.
“They had all their front-line guys against us and they posed some tough match-ups for us physically.
“We went in at half-time and talked a lot about our positioning defensively. I thought we were a whole lot better in the second half, and it was a one-shot game at one point, but we had too much of a hole for ourselves in that first half.
“However, we competed well, considering who we had on the floor, and I thought we fought all the way. And we got some good minutes out of the young guys like Victor Ndoukou, and we are going to need them at some stage, so it was valuable in that regard also.”
In the BBL Championship, London blew away Cheshire 113-74 with a potent offence in front of the Sky TV cameras.
The Lions got off to an electric start, scoring 28 points in the opening quarter, whilst limiting Phoenix to 17. A massive final quarter saw London score 38 points to coast to victory.
Jordan Williams was the MVP as he finished with an impressive triple double of 11 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
A superb Sheffield Sharks final quarter gave them the victory against Manchester Giants 89-88.
Giants had led for most of the game, up 44-38 at half-time. But a remarkable comeback from Sharks finished with Rodney Glasgow Jr’s buzzer beater getting Sharks over the line in a classic game. Jonathan Williams impressed for Sharks with a team-high 18 points.
But the Giants bounced back with a 99-80 home win over Glasgow Rocks.
After a tight first quarter the Giants pulled away by 20 points and nine rebounds from GB captain Dan Clark, and 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists from ex-Rider Jamell Anderson.
Newcastle Eagles secured a first Championship victory over Surrey Scorchers 90-81.
The Eagles were able to open up some daylight in the second quarter, going into the break 51-38 ahead. Corey Johnson put in an excellent performance of 27 points, five rebound and four assists for Eagles.
Newcastle made it a weekend double with a 99-74 away win at Plymouth City Patriots, leading from start to finish. Duke Shelton was the star man for the Eagles with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Bristol Flyers got their Championship campaign under way as they beat Cheshire 76-68.
It was a tight match in the first half with just one point between the teams in a low-scoring affair.
Eventually Flyers opened up an eight-point lead in the final period with Marcus Delpeche the standout player for Flyers as he finished with a game-high 26 points.