Saturday’s Semi-Final saw Raptors entertaining Crawley who had won the Southern League. Every player in the Crawley team was Lithuanian and it is worth noting that Basketball is the National sport in Lithuania!  The Raptors squad had become more depleted overnight due to the loss of “Big man” Cowell from a knee injury and several other players were
again carrying injuries. This left the valley side very limited in some areas and they were expecting a tough game.

The Crawley team were a big side but quick and agile and they started by playing a very physical man-to-man defence, which initially stunned Raptors into turning over the ball and missing early shots. Eventually after four minutes the valley team managed to score through Lindsay and get themselves into the game followed by a classy score from Slabu. Gayle also started to penetrate the Crawley defence and under pressure their players picked up early fouls trying to stop him. A dour first quarter finished with Raptors trailing 15 – 14.

The second quarter saw the intensity and physicality increase and the referees had to impose their authority on several occasions. Graham for Raptors was doing a good defensive job on the Crawley point guard but other players were picking up points and despite a run of ten points without reply Raptors failed to get any substantial lead. The Crawley team were
very quick to counter attack and convert easy lay-ups. Every Raptors player coming into the game was put under pressure and there were several turnovers in this period.  The Crawley supporters ably assisted by their drummer were
now making a lot more noise than the home supporters and when the half finished Crawley were in the lead by 39 to 32.  The Raptors coaching team knew that their team would have to dig deep, and the half-time talk was all about gradually pulling the game back.

The third quarter continued with the sides swopping scores and no real change in the Crawley lead but then with only four minutes of the quarter left, Graham sparked the revival with six quick points of his own. Gayle, Slabu and Lindsay continued the scoring; picking up fouls from the opposition, desperate to stop the run. In the last minutes of this period
Raptors scored twenty points with only a single point reply from Crawley. It was now the turn of the Rossendale supporters to make the noise.

Going into the fourth quarter with a six point lead the Raptors coaches were aware of two important factors; the increasing foul count on the Crawley team and the diminishing fitness of the Raptors players. Early scores from Graham and Slabu took the lead out to ten points but Crawley fought back and gradually closed down the lead. Fatigue started to come into the equation and Raptors missed several easy baskets that would have put them beyond reach and with less than a minute of normal time left the valley side led by only four points.  However rather than play safe and keep hold of
the ball Raptors chose to attack and losing possession allowed the Crawley side to come back and, with a shot in the final seconds, they tied the game.

Interestingly that final shot was very close to being a three-pointer that would have won the game for Crawley by one point!

The game now went into an overtime period of five minutes and a Raptors team, fatigued from their excellent defence on the Crawley Lithuanians, really did “dig deep” totally out-playing a Crawley team that had by the end lost three players who fouled out. The Rossendale team rattled in fifteen points in the five minutes with only three points coming from the
opposition. Three-pointers from Gayle, Estrada and Kornecki were greeted by increasing cheers from the home crowd as Raptors sealed a great victory against formidable opposition. The final score of 88 to 76 showed what a fine team
defensive performance this had been, particularly by Slabu (19 rebs), Estrada (13 rebs), Gayle (12 rebs), Lindsay (7 rebs) and Graham. Top scorers for Raptors were; Gayle 30 and 12 assists, Estrada 14 and 7 assists, Graham 14, and
Slabu 11. Needless to say the services of the physio were in great demand before the after match celebrations.

This tremendous victory now takes Raptors to the National Finals down at Medway in Kent where they will play a Worcester Wolves side, based at the University, who are unbeaten so far this year.