On Saturday the Raptors made the long trip down to Birmingham to face the A’s who’ve had some impressive wins this season including a recent overtime victory against their rivals the Birmingham Mets who topped the division.
The game started at a furious pace with Birmingham making 5 three pointers in the first six baskets while the Raptors team offence was clicking as they scored consistently too. The first quarter finished 23-21 to Birmingham. However, in the second period the Raptors defence was first class as they held Birmingham to just 13 points in the ten minute spell led be defensive specialist and new signing Conor Porter. During the quarter the Raptors tallied 27 points of their own to take a big lead of 48-36 by half time. Whilst it was veterans Steven Gayle and John Lindsay who did the damage in the first half, it was a 9 point individual burst from Papis Samb that effectively sealed the game in the third quarter as the Raptors led 70-57.
In the final quarter the Raptors lead ballooned to over 20 before a final rally from Birmingham clawed them back within 10, but it was too little too late and the Raptors were comfortable victors 81-71. Steven Graham had 15 points and a number of rebounds in the game as the steadying force for the Raptors throughout the game.
Top scorers on the day were: Gayle 22, Graham 15, Estrada 11, Samb 9, Lindsay 9, Porter 7, Sutton 6.
Coach on the day Ken Masser was delighted with the win; “We’re starting to really play together and play for each other. The teams performances are improving every week. Birmingham are a talented young side that cause us some match-up problems but we handled them well. I was really pleased with the defensive effort today. Everyone played well but it was Conor who set the tone defensively and people rallied to his effort. Gayle led the team start to finish today and although he’s not shooting the ball well at the moment we’re still getting good wins which is encouraging.”
Raptors next face Milton Keynes on Sunday (8th Dec), Haslingden Sports Centre at 3pm, in the quarter final of the National Shield Cup competition.