Rossendale Raptors spent last weekend on the road, in their bid for National League success, travelling to Liverpool on Saturday and Middlesbrough on the Sunday. Sadly due to injuries to Mark Cowell and Angelo Kornecki and other unavailability the Raptors squad was reduced to only eight players for both games.
Saturday’s game against Mersey Tigers, who are near the bottom of the table, was unlikely to prove much of a challenge to the high-flying Rossendale outfit and so it proved. Raptors flew into a 30 points to 13 lead at the end of the first quarter due to some excellent movement and outside shooting, especially from Estrada and Gayle. The Raptors coaches rang the changes of personnel and all eight players had experienced court time, by midway through the second quarter. Continued free scoring by all Raptors players put the game out of the reach of the Mersey team and at the half the lead had stretched to 56 – 35 in the Rossendale teams favour. Jim Fry and John Allerston, the Raptors coaches, decided in the interval that it was important to maintain the initiative and practise some of the team’s pressure plays. It was also prudent not to put too much pressure on key players for the following day’s game, so Raptors displayed the strength in depth that the squad has. Operating a full-court press the Raptors ran the Tigers ragged in the third quarter, stealing the ball of the home team and scoring at will. In a breath taking period of less than five minutes Raptors scored 25 points and only allowed the Mersey side to score 7!! During this quarter Aitor Estrada, Raptors shooting guard was on fire, and contributed 21 of the 43 points scored by his side. His long range shooting was exceptional. Gayle the club and League top scorer willingly took a “back seat” allowing Slabu, and Allerston to score freely with the help of assists from Masser and Williams. The onslaught continued in the final quarter with Graham and Ngara joining in the scoring feast.
The home side did manage to respond in the final quarter but had to rely on the outside shooting of McCarthy, one of their more experienced players, to gain some kind of respect with their total. The game was all about the press and running of Raptors and the accuracy of Estrada who nailed eight of his eleven three point attempts despite only playing for twenty of the forty minutes available. Raptors finished winners by 132 to 77. Top scorers were Estrada with 41, Allerston with 19 and Gayle with 18. The latter also contributed with 8 assists and 8 interceptions. Masser, Graham, Ngara, and Slabu also scored double figures. Slabu dominated the boards with 12 rebounds.