Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders and Glasgow Rocks meet for the first time this season on Saturday evening, at the John Sandford Sports Centre in Leicester. The Rocks are currently in fourth spot, whilst the Riders lie in joint sixth, meaning that the outcome of the game should be unpredictable, and Rocks player-coach, Sterling Davis, said he was ready for a tough time against the BBL's oldest franchise this Saturday: 'I think it will be a tough match up this weekend. They (Riders) are playing good basketball' he said.
He added: 'I thought we had a good weekend last weekend. It was a tough schedule with playing Guildford at home on Friday then travelling to Essex the next day. That can really wear you down, but we did a good job of keeping our concentration, especially on the back end of back to back games.'
The difficulty of back-to-back road games in the BBL is something that his opposite number, Riders boss Rob Paternostro, also emphasised in his pre-game thoughts. He said: 'Anytime you have to play back to back road games in this league, you know its going to be a difficult challenge. Teams are finding it very difficult to win games on the road this season.' He added: 'Friday night at Everton we struggled early in the first half but were able to hang around and get back in the game. I thought we could have done a lot of things better, but we continued to compete and we did get two chances with the basketball down three points, with under a minute to go. Unfortunately the shots didn't fall for us so Saturday's game against Worcester was a game we felt like we needed to have. I was very happy with the way we controlled the boards versus Worcester. When we rebound like that it gives us a great chance to win basketball games.'
As well as his team's collective rebounding effort, the American-Italian playcaller also had praise for the performances of Irish brothers Isaac and Aaron Westbrooks, as well as the returning Duane James: 'I thought Isaac and Aaron Westbrooks really played well on Saturday night. Both gave us great effort on the defensive end and that can be contagious within the team. I feel like we are improving each week on the defensive end. It was also a productive weekend for Duane James. He was an efficient scorer in both games and was able to make the crucial free throws on Saturday night versus Worcester.'
Posted on 22 January, 2010
