Stronach Seeks Repeat Performance
The teams in third and fourth place in the BBL Championship
go head-to-head on Wednesday night (7.30pm) when the Kularoos
Plymouth Raiders host the Marshall MK Lions.
Raiders' Head Coach, Gary Stronach, is looking for his side
to repeat the performance that saw them win at the SAMG Verve
Scottish Rocks, after their longest road trip of the season,
on Sunday.
Plymouth go into the game having bounced back from a narrow
78-73 defeat at Sheffield Sharks to end Scottish Rocks' hopes
of a top four finish with a 76-71 win in Glasgow. Coach Stronach
was pleased with his side's display,
"We did well, especially as we were without DeAntoine
Beasley after he picked up an injury against Sharks. We were
behind most of the game, but we outscored them 26-11 in the
fourth, and did a really good job to hold them down defensively.
We're twenty-three and nine going into Wednesday's game and
we've got home court advantage, so I'm pleased with how things
have gone.
"The Lions have won three of the four games against
us, and they've all been pretty close. They can push the ball,
but they're pretty good in the half-court game also. We need
to stop Terrell Brown, but they are a big team, and it isn't
going to be easy to stop the likes of Shawn Jamison, Robert
Youngblood and Mike New.
"We've had a tiring weekend with a trip to Sheffield
and Scotland, and we're only going to get to train once before
the game, but we'll look to finish the league season on a
high. We need to play for the whole game like we did in the
final 15 minutes at Rocks."
As Stronach said, Raiders and Lions have met on four occasions
this season, and while the Lions have won both league encounters
by narrow margins in Bletchley, Raiders did manage a 70-67
home victory in the BBL Trophy group stage in January. Raiders
trailed 20-13 at the end of the first quarter and had slipped
38-21 behind at half time before rediscovering their offence
in the third quarter. A 10-5 run to end the third saw them
tie the match at 46-46 before a tight final quarter saw Anthony
Martin score the game's last three-points as Raiders edged
home. Drew Lasker led Plymouth's scoring with 18 while Terrell
Brown's 23 for Lions was a game-high total.
Plymouth can still snatch second spot in the table, but would
need to beat Lions and hope that Guildford Heat slip up in
their final two games.
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