The season series between the SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks and Marshall MK Lions is on the line when the pair clash live on Setanta Sports 1 (7.30pm) from Braehead Arena on Wednesday.

The Lions are currently sat in fourth place in the BBL Championship, and occupying the final spot that guarantees homecourt advantage in the BBL Championship Playoff quarter-finals.  The Rocks are just two points behind in fifth, meaning that this is a potentially decisive game for both teams.

The previous two meetings between the teams this season have taken place at Lions’ Bletchley home. The first game saw a thriller which the Lions won 97-94. The hosts trailed by four going into the final stanza, and in the final quarter, Rob Yanders got the Rocks off and running with the first five points to take the score out to 80-73.  It was the Lions who broke the game open following that with a 17-4 burst, including six points from former Rock Michael New, to take the score out 90-84.

The Rocks valiantly attempted to come back into the game, but it was Dru Spinks who secured the victory for the Lions from the foul-line.  New led the Lions scoring with 18 points personal, but it was Yanders who led all scorers with 30 points for the Rocks.

In contrast a dominant first half performance sent Rocks on their way to an 89-67 reverse in February.  Maurice Hampton led all scorers in the game with 25 points for the Rocks, while Robert Youngblood led the Lions’ scoring with 15.

As his side look to move towards a home play-off spot, Lions coach Vince Macaulay expects a tough game, “Rocks are a very very good team. They beat us comfortably last time we played them, and they’ll know that this is their last chance to get a top four place.

“Ordinarily I’d say it was a big game, but Friday’s game against Capital [which the Lions won 75-74] showed that every game is a big game in the BBL. It’s a great chance for us to get a top four place and home court advantage in the play-offs for the first time in our history.

“Everyone knows that they are driven by Robert Yanders. He’s one of the premier point guard in the league, if not the best. His experience shows in each and every game, but Hampton also does a great job for them. He’s underrated, but with Yanders also, they have a back-court as good as any in the league.

“As player-coach Sterling [Davis] has a great opportunity to influence the game on the floor. He’s a very determined character, and has shown he’s the man for the Rocks.”

Friday 28 March 2008      MetroRadio Arena.  7.30pm
Newcastle Eagles will aim to maintain their title push when they host Marshall MK Lions in a repeat of the BBL Cup final, on Friday.

That final at the NIA saw Lions triumph 69-66 over the Eagles with Kevin Griffin named Most Valuable Player as he finished with 24 points and five three pointers.  With five minutes remaining Lions led 60-57, but Andrew Bridge scored with 1.17 to go to get the Eagles to within one point at 67-66.

The final 30 seconds saw the ball largely in Lions’ hands. They ran down the clock, before Eagles were forced to foul them with five seconds left. Veteran forward Michael New cooly dispatched the two resulting free throws to re-establish a three point lead at 69-66 and force Eagles to try for a three to tie the game and force overtime. Lynard Stewart was the man with the ball in his hands, but his buzzer shot fell short and Lions won their first piece of silverware.

Eagles gained some measure of revenge with an 87-78 victory at the MetroRadio Arena last month. Lynard Stewart led all scorers with 24 points, whilst Olu Babalola (22), and Jeremy Hyatt (18) also scored well.

Lions coach Vince Macaulay is looking forward to the challenge of traveling to face the league leaders, “It’s always a big game up there, we love going there and giving their fans something to shout about. It’s nice to take a full team, and they’ll be concentrating on winning the league. When they do win it, it will be thoroughly deserved. We’ll need to play for 40 minutes, and we’ll also be looking to use all of our time-outs.”

Lions managed to chalk up their 17th league victory of the season as they finished strongly to defeat PAWS London Capital, and Macaulay admitted his side didn’t play well, “We didn’t shoot the ball well, and we lacked a bit of defensive intensity. But late in the fourth period we found our feet, and luckily we weren’t too far down. It wasn’t pretty but a win is a win.”

Part of the reason for the victory was the play of debutant Gregg Harvey – an 18-year-old product of the Lions’ basketball academy, and Macaulay had  praise for the youngster, “Gregg did a terrific job, he’s been training every morning with the academy and the first team, and we decided it was time to give him a chance. When we called on him, he answered, and it was great to see him do so well.”

Eagles player-coach Fab Flournoy knows that it’s tough to work out who his team needs to stop if they are to beat the Lions, “I really couldn’t say who you concentrate on as they are all capable of stepping up. One minute Yorick is dropping 25 on someone, but the next minute it’s Tony Windless or Robert Youngblood who is top scoring. Kevin Griffin and Dru Spinks have both won games for them this season, and then there’s Terrell Brown at the point or Peter Heizer who quietly does all the little things for them.”

The Kularoos Plymouth Raiders will continue their push for a top four spot, whilst keeping their fingers crossed for a drastic Newcastle slip-up at the top of the table, when they host the BiG Storage Cheshire Jets on Friday night. 

The two sides have already met four times this season, with Raiders emerging as winners in three of the games. Gary Stronach’s side hosted Jets on the opening weekend of the season, and thanks to a 36 point Drew Lasker haul they recorded an 89-74 victory. Raiders wrapped up the BBL Championship season series between the clubs with a 93-84 home victory. In between those two games, both sides recorded home wins in the BBL Trophy group stage. Plymouth won 74-71 against an injury-hit Jets side, but Cheshire’s 87-74 win in January proved key as they qualified for the semi-finals of the competition. 

Raiders saw their outside chance of winning the league damaged severely with a 94-78 home loss against Newcastle Eagles last week, and Raiders coach Gary Stronach was disappointed with his side’s performance, “We were second best throughout, we only played in the first quarter, and then it was all downhill from there. They played really well, and I’m not taking anything away from them, we were beaten by the better team, we need to take it on the chin and get back to winning games.”  

Stronach acknowledges that Raiders’ hopes of league glory are effectively over, “We haven’t got a chance of winning the league, both Newcastle and Guildford have the head-to-heads on us, but we need to get home court advantage, and finish as high as we can. Guildford are looking good for second place after beating Newcastle, but we still want our best ever finish in the BBL.” 

The Raiders boss expects Jets to provide tough opposition, “Cheshire can still get eighth place, although it will be tough for them. They are a guard oriented team and have two outstanding players in Trey More and Jayson Obazuaye. They’ve also got James Hamilton in there, and I have been really impressed with Matt Otten recently. They are a good side, and it won’t be easy.  

“We need to get back to playing tough defence. I think we’re one of the best defensive sides in the league, we’ve been giving up around 78 points per game, we can’t let teams score 94 on us. If we can sort our defence out, we’ll be okay.”  

Having split their two games against Everton Tigers last week, Jets coach Paul Smith acknowledges that his team will struggle to make post-season, and knows that they face a tough game in the West Country, “We’re only an outside bet for the play-offs now, and we need to respond after the loss against Everton. Plymouth play excellent defence, and it’s a tough place to go to. I really like Drew Lasker, when we beat them it was no coincidence that he got into foul trouble. He can score and he plays great defence. Terrence Durham does a pretty good job for them, he works hard, is physically strong and knows how to get away with stuff. But all in all, they are a good team all round.”

Friday 28 March 2008      E.I.S. Sheffield   7.30pm
The season series between the Sheffield Sharks and Everton Tigers will be determined on Friday evening when the pair meet at the EIS.

Both sides have won on their opponent’s court this season, with Sharks winning 81-77 on Merseyside in December before the Tigers gained revenge with a 93-87 victory five weeks later.

Sheffield picked up their 12th league victory of the season on Saturday when they won 79-62 at London Capital, and coach Pete Scantlebury was pleased how his side have bounced back after their 92-83 home loss against Guildford Heat last week, “We played well, and the pleasing thing was we kept the pressure on them and didn’t let up. James Whyte played well, and we really missed him on Wednesday when he had food poisoning. But it was a good all-round effort and performance which won the game. They’d had a tough game at Lions the day before, and they missed Sam Bradley, but we did well.

“Against Guildford, there were too many unforced errors in the first half, and although we played better in the second half, we had too much ground to catch up. We had our chances at the end, but we let them off the hook with a couple of turnovers. We need to concentrate more and close games out.

“It looks like we are in the play-offs, but it’s all about our final position now. Our next three games are vital, and whoever wins when we play Everton and Worcester will get the head-to-heads.

Turning to Everton, Scantlebury added, “They are up and down of late. I saw them at Cheshire on Sunday, which was helpful because I hadn’t been to watch them for a while, and they shot the ball really well in the second half. We need to make sure we stop that happening, and limit Richard Midgley and Tony Robertson. Calvin Davis is their unsung hero, he does a lot of work on the boards, and we need to keep him quiet. Those three players are their key guys.”

Tigers go into the game on the back of splitting a pair of games against local rivals BiG Storage Cheshire Jets, and Everton coach Henry Mooney was disappointed with his side’s heavy home loss against the Jets, “We just didn’t turn up to play. I think the occasion got to us a bit, but we should have had the experience as most of our players have played in that kind of environment before. We had no energy, and we went away from the game-plan. They made all of their shots, which obviously didn’t help either.

“We played a lot better on Sunday, We stepped up our defence in the second half, ran the floor and made our shots. We needed that win, otherwise we would have dug ourselves a big hole.”

Mooney is looking forward to the game at the EIS,

The Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders will be aiming to keep their play-off chances alive when they host in-form Worcester Wolves on Saturday.

The two previous meetings between the midlands rivals this season have both resulted in Wolves chalking up home victories – 92-85 in October and 67-66 in February.

Riders coach Martin Ford knows his side need to slow the Wolves down if they are to win the game, “We need to contain Anthony Paez and James Life, and both times we’ve played them, we’ve done a good job on them. We’ve handled the pace against them, and stopped them shooting in the open court.

“Shaun Durant has been the main problem for us. He knows his job, he pulls down the rebounds, and lets the other two guys get on with shooting the ball. We’ll contain him, keep him off the boards, and keep them down to one-shot.

“We need to slow them down, make them shoot over us. They like to get into the run and gun game, so we need to keep them down to one shot and execute our offences.”

Ford still holds out some hope that his side can reach the play-offs, “Mathematically we can still make it if we win all our games. We can afford Sheffield to win two and Jets four. As long as we win all of ours we would then take it on the head-to-head. We’ll keep fighting, the guys did a fantastic job against Sheffield. We did a great job in the first half against Worcester, but only for one half, and they got back into it. It’s all about playing for 40 minutes.”

With Wolves having been out of BBL action for a fortnight, coach Skouson Harker is looking forward to getting back into action, “We’ve had a break, and everyone’s caught up the games they had in hand on us, so now we’re on a level playing field we can set a realistic target. We’re in the middle of a six game winning streak, and we want to push on to get as high a league position as possible. Sixth is a possibility if we can keep winning most of our games, and hope the other two slip up. We have to play Sheffield, and the winners of that will have the head to head, plus the game at Heat on Setanta will be interesting. But there’s been so many strange results, you can’t take any game for granted. The break has done us the world of good, James Life and Ivan Brosko were suffering with injuries, but we’re fully fit now.”

Harker is keen to stress that his team can adapt their style if necessary, “We’ve matched up quite well with them so far. They are strong guard-wise, but now they’ve got Carlo White it changes things a bit. With Ivan fit we can change our style if we need to. People think we’re just a run-and-gun team, but we’re capable of slowing things down, as well.”

BiG Storage Cheshire Jets  vs Poujoulat Guildford Heat      

The BiG Storage Cheshire Jets will be looking to prevent the Guildford Heat sweeping them in BBL Championship games this season when they host the BBL Trophy winners on Sunday.

A strong third period proved key when the sides met in Cheshire in October as Heat won 98-89. Danny Gilbert led all scorers in the game with 26 points for the Heat, including 16 points in the final quarter alone, while Shawn Myers led the Jets’ scoring with 25. The return at The Spectrum proved to be more one-sided as Guildford turned up the heat in the second half to win 111-91. Danny Gilbert led the way with 31 points, whilst James Jones had most of his 22 points from beyond the arc.  Jayson Obazuaye and Matt Otten had 27 each for the Jets.

Jets coach Paul Smith is expecting a difficult game when the Heat arrive at the Northgate Arena, “We pushed them well with only five players available, but James Jones came of the bench and hit a bunch of threes. That’s the kind of team they are, they are really deep and don’t need any superstars. Obviously Tony Dorsey brings a lot to them, but when you’ve got players like Jones coming off the bench, distributing the ball well and hitting open threes, you know it will be tough. They’ve had a great win against Newcastle, and their depth will always make them a tough team to play against.”

Jets come into the game on the back of a comfortable win at Everton Tigers, before the Merseyside team gained revenge with a victory at the Northgate Arena on Sunday, “It was a great night, and Everton did a really good job to put a show like that on at only short notice,” said Smith. “It was one of our better performances of the season, we played good defence which I think was the main difference. They had five 24 second violations which is pretty good going.

“I told the players we needed to focus on defence, because that’s what won us the game at their place, but we didn’t play enough of it in the second half. We were okay in the first half, but they came in the third and hit some shots and our heads dropped. It could have gone either way, but I’m pleased for Henry [Mooney – Tigers’ coach], he’s a good guy and they deserved the win.”

Heat coach Paul James is looking to build on his side’s recent win against league leaders Newcastle Eagles, “We want to continue in the same vein as our recent games. We played some great stuff against Sheffield and Newcastle, and we need to keep the momentum going into the play-offs. We won’t do anything differently this time, Trey Moore and Jayson Obazuaye have been scoring for fun recently, so we need to control them. I think we have players who can do that.

“They are a team who can beat anyone on their day, they are still looking to get into the play-offs, and they aren’t going to throw the towel in.”

PAWS London Capital will aim to record their first ever victory against SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks when the pair meet on Sunday.

Rocks led 64-58 at the final break in the previous game, but an amazing finale was set up as London chipped away at the lead early in the fourth before Sam Bradley connected from long range to tie the game at 72.  Capital went ahead at 76-74 on a Tayo Ogedengbe score and made it 78-74 after a pair of Bradley free-throws, before the final 12 seconds ensued. From there Gareth Murray hit a three-pointer to narrow the gap to a single point before, with 10 seconds left, Santa Ataha was sent to the free-throw line.  The London guard missed both free-throws in-front of a raucous crowd, and the Rocks found Rob Yanders on the outlet, who was fouled himself with 6 seconds to go.  The BBL All-Star made both of his free-throws to give the Rocks the win 79-78.

Steve Bucknall’s team made the return trip to Glasgow three weeks later, and Rocks recorded a much more comfortable 77-57 victory. After a close opening quarter which saw the Rocks edge it 18-11, the Rocks took control of the game in the second period, restricting the Capital to just eight points in the quarter, and they never looked back.

Moritz Wohlers led all scorers in the game with 17 points for the Rocks, while Ibrahim Gariba and Mansour Mbeye led the Capital scoring with 15 points apiece.

Capital went down to defeats twice over the Easter weekend, losing by a point at Marshall MK Lions before being hammered at home by Sheffield Sharks, and coach Steve Bucknall was disappointed with the loss at Lions, “It was a tough weekend, but you get that in basketball. I felt like we did everything we could bar the main thing, which is finishing the game off. That’s not the first time it’s happened this season, and I doubt it will be the last. We just don’t have the experience to finish games off. It’s the first time that a lot of our guys have played at this level. They have to learn to finish strongly, the game isn’t over after 35 minutes.  

“It was tough because we lost Sam Bradley with a torn muscle in his foot, which is all we need right now, and Mansour was sick. It’s a difficult situation, but we’ve been in difficult situations all year. Hopefully we’ll take this experience into next year. They are a good group of guys, and I’d like to keep them and build on what we’ve learned.”

Bucknall is looking forward to the game on Sunday, “They were there for the taking the first time we went up, but the second time we gave them the game. Their key guys are Sterling Davis and Rob Yanders, they feed off those two. But they’ve got a good all-round team, with players like Julius Joseph, and they are a good team when they get going. They’ve only got a short bench, whereas we run nine or ten players, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage. They have a long trip down, and we need to jump on them early before they have time to settle.”

Rocks’ London-born forward Julius Joseph is excited about his team’s trip to the capital, “It’s a very exciting game for me, because it’s like a homecoming. I know most of their players as we play together all summer. They have some very good players, and when they’re playing with confidence, they can beat anyone.

“Sam Bradley’s a key player for them, although I know he got injured last week, and Mansour’s playing with a lot of confidence. When we narrowly won against them in January it was down to over-confidence. We know that we shouldn’t lose games like that. We all expected someone else to step up rather than taking the responsibility ourselves. You can’t do that in basketball. They beat Guildford a few weeks ago, so clearly we can’t take them lightly.”

BiG Storage Cheshire Jets vs. Everton Tigers