Rossendale Raptors made it 16 games unbeaten and with it won promotion from Division Four North.
Now, with two games left, victory in one of these will clinch the champions crown – although they do travel to third-placed Stockport Falcons tomorrow. Their latest win came against Burnley College Blaze last Saturday.
This Academsy side receive high quality coaching on a daily basis as part of their studies and are a fit, young and accomplished team. They are also coached by American Malcolm Leak an ex-player of some standing, who has played in the NBA and around Europe.
The Raptors coaching team were well aware of the threats that this aspiring team posed and had come up with a game plan they hoped would go some way to nullifying the strengths. The game started tentatively with it just 5-5 after five minutes.
Despite some good offensive rebounds the Raptors players were unable to convert them into points as they trailed 14-12 at the end of the first quarter. Raptors picked up their game in the second quarter with top scorer Steve Gayle breaking out of his shackles for a while and John Lindsay going to the basket with determination.
Lindsay went to the free throw line six times in a row in this period converting all his attempts and helping to stretch the Raptors’ lead. Blaze came back a little towards the end of the period but the Rossendale team held the advantage, 37-28, as the half closed. The third quarter was scrappy and Burnley only trailed 45 -40 going into the final quarter.
The quarter started well for Raptors with Ngara scoring on the break and Graham stealing the ball and going all the way to the other end to score. Cowell, Raptors’ big man then got in on the act grabbing a great rebound and putting it back to build an 11-point lead. Blaze clawed back eight pointsand then their main man Bilson-Graham managed to get free to score several times.
Graham and Ngara both scored easy lay-ups for the raptors and Cowell slotted a long two-pointer, but as the game drew towards its end it became more and more scrappy. It was tight for Raptors and their lead had dropped to just three points but they managed to keep their heads and continue to defend strongly. Inside the last minute, Blaze scored a two point conversion to mean they were only a single point behind with 10 seconds to go.
Luckily, after a foul on Gayle, he scored one of his two free throws to keep Raptors two points ahead and they denied Blaze any further shots in the last few seconds. A relieved Raptors team celebrated their victory knowing that promotion was theirs.
This was a hard fought victory based on team effort, a solid game plan, and good individual defence.
Main scorers for Raptors were Gayle (21 points), Graham (10 points), Lindsay (10 points), Ngara (9 points).