The Rocks are hoping to finish 2009 with a bang and will be looking to beat the Heat at home on Wednesday night. The Rocks have lost their past 2 games while the Heat are coming off a 5 game losing streak.
Head to head the Guildford Heat have won nine of the sixteen fixtures between them and the Rocks in BBL history, the last game resulting in a 66-74 Heat victory at the back end of the 2008/09 season.
A common denominator between that game and Wednesday's encounter, is BBL Veteran point guard Rob Yanders. A former BBL All Star, Yanders has played in the BBL since 2002/03, when he signed for the Sheffield Sharks, and player-coach of the Rocks Sterling Davis hailed the former Southwest Missouri State Star's influence as crucial to his side's title ambitions: 'Rob is playing great for us' he said: ' (He is) really being the leader that he has always been, getting the ball where its supposed to go and coming up with the biggest shots when necessary.'
As the 2009/10 season nears its half way point, Davis was under no illusions about the challenges the Rocks, who are currently the league table's 7th place team, face in 2010. He added: 'I think we have our work cut out for the second half of the season for sure. We have some tough games coming and an even tougher game schedule as far as consecutive games are concerned.'
The Heat come into the game off the back of a four game losing streak, and Player-coach Chad McKnight will be looking to make up for lost ground in the New Year. He commented: 'I think we started out decently but as of late we have dropped a lot of games, so we now put ourselves in a spot where every game counts even more now. ' The former Morehead State Forward also pointed to the fact that his star performer, Mike Martin, was out with illness in the Heat's last game. They went down 71-78 to a struggling Airwaves Plymouth Raiders outfit, and McKnight added that he believed his side could have sneaked the win had Martin been fit. He said the following on the game: 'I think if we would have had Mike Martin we would have won the game on Sunday against Plymouth. He plays a big part to our team he is a force inside plus he a leader Despite their recent run of results, the Heat have made some worthy additions to their roster ahead of their last game in 2009, and having already beaten last year's league Champions Newcastle Eagles, they will certainly pose a tough test to Sterling Davis' side, one of the form teams in the league at present, who have the added advantage of playing the game on their home court.
Posted on 27 December, 2009
