Home / UK HOOPS / BBL / LEICESTER READY TO SEAL TITLE

LEICESTER READY TO SEAL TITLE

LEICESTER RIDERSLeicester Riders can seal the BBL Championship with a victory against Durham Wildcats on Saturday but centre Anthony Rowe wants his side to finish it off in style.

The Midlands outfit got a shot at clinching their first-ever title on their home floor after Newcastle’s victory over Worcester on Tuesday sent the race towards Easter Weekend.

However with Durham staring elimination from the play-off race, Rowe knows the visitors have incentives of their own.

“They have their own battle to get into the play-offs, and they’re a team that have dramatically improved this season” said Rowe, who joined the Riders early in the season from Plymouth.

“They deserve to be in play-off contention and they won’t lie down for us. It’ll be a battle for us, both physically and emotionally. They’re one more team in the way of our championship.”

Riders need just one win from their remaining five BBL Championship games to take the title for the first time, and a sell-out crowd is expected at the John Sandford Sports Centre.

Rob Paternostro’s team are also in action on Sunday when they travel to strugglers Mersey Tigers.

Riders continued their fine season, which has seen only four losses from 34 games in all competition with victories against Glasgow Rocks and Manchester Giants.

But the absences of Zaire Taylor, Jorge Calvo and Pavol Losonsky in recent weeks has tested their resove.

” We missed Zaire against Glasgow and then lost Jorge Calvo against Manchester so that was both our point guards gone,” said Rowe. “They’ve both played fantastically for us this season but Connor [Washington] stepped up and did really well. It’s officially his first win in the BBL leading a team and he deserves praise.

“I had a back strain and Pavol only played limited minutes, so it was stressful weekend for coach P as we’re so close to a championship. But we’re not a team who have one player who carries us, we’ve proven we can still win with players missing, and the two wins were a credit to our team.”

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • Print
Ad

You must be logged in to post a comment Login