Rossendale Raptors entertained Liverpool at Haslingden Sports Centre last Saturday in their latest National League game.
The home team, unbeaten since the start of November, had easily beaten their opponents by more than 40 points during the reverse fixture earlier in the season.
However, the Mersey outfit are an improving side and have recently recruited a new player, Chris Bigley, who trained with Raptors during last summer and who has been playing with Huddersfield Heat.
The start was delayed because of Liverpool’s late arrival, but Raptors were soon into their stride.
Some impressive team play saw Estrada sink a fine three-pointer and Slabu landed two huge dunks following feeds from Gayle.
Both sides were playing tight man-to-man defence, and by the five-minute mark, the home side had a 13-7 lead but had already picked up their quota of team fouls.
Hudson, one of the Liverpool side’s main scorers, decided to take on the Raptors and drove to the basket on several occasions, drawing further fouls from the Raptors’ defence and being rewarded with four sets of free throws.
He sank all eight shots, and with team-mate Bigley picking up some easy rebounds and conversions, the Liverpool side edged into a two-point lead with a minute of the quarter left.
However, Raptors came back through Platt and Slabu to tie the quarter at 24-24.
Liverpool started the second session with a rush and picked up some easy baskets to lead by six after only three minutes.
This stung the Raptors into action and they went on an 18- point rampage with no reply from the Merseyside team.
Gayle, Estrada and Graham all contributed to the total but Liverpool responded with seven points in the last minute to cut Raptors’ lead to only five points.
Raptors started the second half with a full court press which shook the away team and caused them to turn the ball over on several occasions as they struggled throughout the quarter, only scoring 11 points.
Raptors rested Gayle for much of the period but Graham stepped up to the mark, going strongly to the hoop for several impressive scores which enabled Raptors to go into the last quarter with a lead of 13 points.
With the game effectively won, the Raptors coaches expected the team to pull away from their visitors, but this didn’t happen.
There was a lack of discipline from the Rossendale team and several players made poor choices in shots and decisions.
In frustration head coach Jim Fry substituted all five players on court for a fresh five so he could get his point over.
During this period an unfortunate collision resulted in Angelo Kornecki suffering a broken bone in his foot – an injury which means he will be out of action for five or six weeks.
Meanwhile Bigley, who eventually finished with 24 points for the opposition, had slowly but surely been accumulating points through a combination of opportunism and poor defending.
A trio of consecutive three-pointers then brought them to within four points of Raptors.
There was a slight panic until Cowell and Gayle restored the status quo with a 13-4 points run in the last four minutes of the game.
The final buzzer went to leave Raptors’ unbeaten record intact and a Liverpool side satisfied to have given the league leaders a run for their money.
Raptors have a tough weekend coming up with an away double-header as they travel to Mersey Tigers on Saturday and then to fellow title contenders Middlesbrough Lions on Sunday.
http://menmedia.co.uk/rossendalefreepress/sport/s/1472898_rossendale-raptors-86-liverpool-72