Rossendale Raptors were looking for their 15th win in a row and as they faced mid-table Bradford Maroons at home last Saturday.
Rossendale team had beaten Maroons convincingly earlier in the National League Four season, and so, the title challengers were looking for a repeat.
Raptors again fielded a slightly depleted squad of nine due to injury and family illness but hoped that they would still have enough to win the game.
However the game was to prove to be much closer than the previous encounter and the Maroons came out and played well, pushing Raptors right to the final quarter but Raptors had enough.
A slow start by Raptors saw them miss their first two open shots while the Bradford team seemed relaxed and took first blood with an easy lay-up. Eventually Steven Gayle dropped a couple of three-pointers to get the Raptors going but the first seven minutes saw the away team lead by eight points.
A change in personnel for Raptors brought its reward when Matthew Ngara drove strongly to the basket to make his first two scores and then veteran John Lindsay found Gayle with a superb assist pass and followed it with a base line drive to score himself. Gayle added the last two scores of the quarter to put Raptors into a 27-24 lead.
The second quarter started well with Aitor Estrada scoring his first points and then Ngara again showed his speed and skill by taking the ball to the hoop and scoring three quick baskets.
Unfortunately Raptors failed to build on the good start and their offence became static and ineffectual while Maroons went to the strength of experienced players Malek and Dennis, who scored the last nine points of the quarter with only two points coming from Raptors.
The half-time score saw the narrowest of leads for Raptors, holding a 45-44 advantage.
The third period started with some good defensive pressure by Raptors which led to Gayle getting several easy baskets, and then Ngara got on the end of a couple of decisive long passes to convert. Following this, Raptors were guilty of losing their edge and missed several easy baskets, and made poor defensive decisions.
However Gayle was again accumulating the points, choosing to go to the basket for his scores and not taking the longer shots. Lindsay again came onto court and showed his experience with astute positioning and clean moves to the hoop.
Maroons did match Raptors, basket for basket, towards the end of this quarter and remained in touch, trailing 73-65. Lindsay continued to impress at the start of the final period with quality conversions close to the basket and the Raptors team started to build their lead over the Bradford side who struggled to compete with the increase in pace.
All of the Raptors players got on the scoresheet and Gayle used his speed and anticipation to run the opposition ragged including a huge slam dunk.
The Rossendale side went on a run of 21 points with only four being scored against them in the first six minutes of the quarter but Maroons fought back in the closing moments to score 10 in the last three minutes. The final hooter went with Raptors pulling off their 15th successive win.
Top men for Raptors were Gayle (43 points), Lindsay (15 points) and Ngara (14 points).
There was a bonus for the Raptors side on the Sunday when third-placed Middlesbrough Lions beat second-placed Stockport Falcons up in Eston.
This means that the Valley side now have a four-point cushion at the top of National League Division 4 North going into their last three games. However there are tough away games to come in the next two weeks against Burnley tomorrow (away, 2pm start) and Stockport.
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