Lions Look to Seal Fourth at Everton
The Everton Tigers will be looking to prevent the Marshall
MK Lions sealing home court advantage in the play-offs when
the pair meet at Greenbank Academy on Wednesday.
Everton are looking to improve a recent record that has seen
them lose six of their last seven games; whilst the Lions
will cement fourth place in the BBL Championship with a win
in this game.
Both meetings between the teams this season have seen close
encounters, with Lions winning 94-90 at home in November before
the Tigers gained revenge a fortnight later with a 67-64 victory.
Henry Mooney, Everton's coach, is expecting another tough
game when his side face the Lions,
"It's going to be tough, but they aren't playing that
well at the moment. Nor are we, though, we've lost six of
our last seven, and we had a long talk to sort things out
over the weekend. We know what we have to do.
"We've qualified for the play-offs, and it seems to
be whether we finish seventh or eighth. We don't want to go
to Newcastle again, although the laws of averages say we must
be due a win. It's a good achievement to get into the play-offs
in our first season, but we want to give ourselves the best
possible chance to reach the final four.
"Yorick Williams is always dangerous - when he gets
off, he really gets off. Shawn Jamison, Robert Youngblood,
and Tony Windless all have bags of experience, and it will
be tough. Above all we need to be ready to play. We were against
Newcastle last week, and we played really well; we were ahead
for long stages, and we should have won that game.
"But on Saturday against London Capital we looked flat.
Tony Robertson got injured, and that hurt us because he can
play their style of basketball. But some of our guys weren't
up four it, and that has to be addressed over the summer."
Lions' coach Vince Macaulay is hoping for the win which will
seal a top four finish for his club,
"We still need to win one game to get fourth place and
home court advantage in the play-off. By hook or by crook
we've managed to avoid playing against Richard Midgley this
season, but some of the guys saw them down at Capital last
week and he's clearly a class player. He drives them and gets
to the free- throw line, so limiting him is key to winning
the game.
"Tony Robertson and Calvin Davis are both class players,
and we know it'll be a tough game. I'm not sure where they'll
want to finish, but imagine they'll want to avoid eighth having
already lost five times against Newcastle this season. We
didn't do ourselves justice last time we went up there, we
arrived really late due to traffic, but we still had a chance
to win the game."
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