The Raptors had one of the biggest weekends of the season so far with two games over the course of the weekend. Rossendale faced Sheffield Sabres on Saturday in the league as they continued their hunt for promotion and had a National Shield semi final on Sunday away to Oxford. The Raptors were also set to hand debuts to new signings Josh Houghton and Yomi Taiwo.
Sheffield Sabres posed a dangerous threat to the Raptors and are always a well organised team, coached by British Basketball legend Peter Scantlebury. The Raptors started well and led for most of the game. Good play from the Raptors guards including Papis Samb, Steven Gayle and new signing Josh Houghton proved difficult for Sheffield to cope with. Raptors big centre, Tom Sutton was a handful and scored consistently in the first half. The Raptors went into the half time break 46-39 ahead but it was in the second half that the Sabres three point shooting onslaught came brought them back into the game. Sheffield Ash Chandley hit an astonishing 9 three points on his way to a game high to 38 points. The Raptors continued to keep their noses in front despite this incredible shooting display from a Sheffield team who hit a total of 15 three pointers.
As it came to crunch time at the end of the game, Josh Houghton hit a deep three pointer followed by an incredible fadeaway jump shot from Papis Samb which gave the Raptors a narrow lead with a minute to go. Steven Gayle then came up trumps with a crucial steal and Samb closed out the game from the free throw line to give the Raptors a hard fought 92-88 victory. Samb scored 23, Sutton 16, Gayle 15 and Houghton 14.
The cup semi final was a similar story as Raptors faced a team that shot very well from behind the three point line. However, Raptors were without Josh Houghton (cup tied) and Conor Porter, and when Tom Sutton was withdrawn from the game with a foot injury, and John Lindsay taken out of the game at half time with an expected broken wrist. The Raptors struggled to maintain momentum. Despite these injuries the Raptors fought hard but couldn’t close the weekend with a win and lost narrowly 91-88. Steven Gayle scored 31 and Anthony Kuczaj scored 22.
With the dream of winning the cup finished for this season, Raptors turn all their attention to the league and face fellow promotion rivals Birmingham Bullets on Saturday, at Haslingden Sports Centre, 5:15pm tip-off. This is one of the most important games the Raptors have for the remainder of the season and are in need of a big crowd to cheer them to victory.