Having battled their way through to the National League Play-offs Rossendale Raptors faced the greatest challenge of their existence and travelled to the Medway to meet Worcester Wolves. The opposition, all students at the University, have remained unbeaten throughout the season and in addition have won this year’s British Universities Championship. Raptors Head Coach Jim Fry had watched the Wolves play earlier in the year and spotted their main threats and recognised them as a strong, very fit and well coached squad.
Despite one or two players carrying injuries Raptors were buoyed by their semi-final result, and carried on where they had left off in that game, full of flair and confidence. After a slightly apprehensive start by both teams Raptors swept into a ten point lead with no reply from Worcester. John Lindsay struck first blood with a score on the break and Steve Gayle sank his first three-point attempt. Ionut Slabu chipped in with a couple of scores and the Rossendale side were firing on all cylinders. Wolves however responded to the early onslaught and were very quick into their offense and Raptors worryingly picked up early fouls. However some good defensive rebounding by all Raptors players stemmed the tide and despite a press put on by the Worcester team, Raptors stretched their lead out again. Kornecki, with his first touch on
coming on sank a sweet shot from way out and Gayle with a long three-pointer finished the quarter 31 to 19 ahead. The substantial crowd were being treated to a great game of Basketball.
At the start of the second quarter Wolves put considerable pressure on Gayle, Raptors play-maker, forcing turnovers and also getting some easy baskets on the break. For a while Raptors struggled to come to terms with the intensity of the Worcester pressure and allowed the Wolves to close the lead back to only one point through good shooting from their top two scorers and inside play by their England U19 centre. Raptors were also picking up fouls which caused concern to the coaching staff. From an end-line play Slabu crashed to the basket scoring with a finger roll and converting the free-throw awarded as well. This sparked a revival for the Rossendale squad and with Coach Fry ringing the changes of personnel the Raptors got their act together again, putting the points on the board. Three-pointers from Estrada and Gayle were backed up by good shooting from Matt Allerston and the half closed with Raptors holding a reasonable 53 to 46 lead.
Because the quicker Wolves players had been penetrating the Raptors key and drawing fouls as well as scoring, the Rossendale side switched to a 2-3 zone defence at the start of the second half. This ploy worked well and forced the opposition to take more speculative outside shots which reduced their success rate. Meanwhile at the other end Raptors were scoring easy baskets through Lindsay with assists from Gayle and Estrada. Slabu had a bit of a purple patch taking unlikely shots which somehow found their way in. The Raptors defence was forced to work overtime when Wolves put on both of their “Big men” but the zone defence held the Worcester score down and even forced a 24 second call on the Wolves. The effort took its toll however and towards the end of the quarter tiredness caused several Rossendale turnovers which were converted into points by the Wolves. Raptors were happy to take the quarter 21 – 17 and go into the final session with an eleven point lead. At this stage Gayle for Raptors led the scoring with 28 points.
The fourth quarter started with several sterile offences from Raptors whilst Wolves, unable to break the Raptors tight inside defence were continuing to throw up outside shots through Belgrave, their main shooter, and Ziwa, who scored ten points in four minutes. With shots going in, the younger, fitter Wolves side pulled back the lead and Raptors for a while looked tired. Estrada came back into the game and twice sank three-pointers to keep Raptors in front.
Graham and Slabu both scored amazing lay-ups in this period. The Worcester players put amazing pressure on Gayle he was to go through the quarter without scoring. However this allowed other players to take advantage and Slabu added to his total keeping Raptors ahead. With two minutes of the match left Raptors led 88 – 83 and one or two doubts started to creep in. However following a Time-out the Rossendale team regrouped and knew what they had to do. A couple of three-pointers from Wolves pulled them back to 89 – 87 down with 15 seconds to go, but they were forced to foul Raptors players to stop the clock. Three Raptors players went to the line but could only shoot one each of their two shots, but these however were sufficient to keep the buffer and a jubilant Rossendale side ran out Championship winners by 91 to 87.
Ionut Slabu was awarded Most Valuable Player with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Steve Gayle finished with 28 points, 3 rebounds and 10 assists. Other main contributors were Aitor Estrada with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists; John Lindsay 10 points; Stephen Graham 5 points and 8 rebounds; Angelo Kornecki 4 points and 5 rebounds. However this was a great team effort and every Raptors player was involved, some including Cowell, Masser, Ngara and Platt contributing in more holding or defensive roles.
Raptors led from start to finish and managed to beat the side highly fancied Worcester to win the Championship. A fantastic end to their first season in the National League by the Rossendale side.
Photos courtesy of: www.imageworksevents.co.uk