2011 Regular Season over Now Play-Offs

ROUND 1 OF THE 2011 PLAY-OFFS
MERSEY TIGERS V  LEICESTER RIDERS
NEWCASTLE EAGLES V GUILDFORD HEAT
SHEFFIELD SHARKS V GLASGOW ROCKS
CHESHIRE JETS  V  PLYMOUTH RAIDERS

The Heat managed that after a 91-66 defeat of the Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders, who drop to eighth. The Heat blew their visitors away in the opening five minutes, taking a lead of 22-2 and never looking back. The Hosts were led by Mike Martin’s close to perfect performance of 22 points – from 10/10 shooting – 8 rebounds and 7 steals.

That means that the Heat will face the Newcastle Eagles in the Playoff quarter-finals, while the Riders will go up against the league champions: Mersey Tigers.

Elsewhere, the UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders stamped their mark on fifth place, setting up a Playoff meeting with the Cheshire Jets, after beating their South Coast rivals the Worthing Thunder 108-74. The Raiders take momentum into the post-season with three wins out of four in April, including a home defeat of the Jets at the start of the month.

The Raiders also blew away their opposition in the first half, leading 61-33 by the break. The lead was 34-20 by the end of the first quarter, as Chez Marks hit his fourth triple to take him to 14 points in the opening ten minutes. Anthony Rowe opened the second stanza with a triple to spark a 10-0 burst, which included a Germaine Forbes three-pointer and four more for Rowe, making the score 44-20.

The hosts were led by 27 points and 10 rebounds from Rowe, with Lehmon Colbert Jr and Evaldas Zabas leading the charge in the second half, adding 18 each.

North of the border, the Glasgow Rocks confirmed their sixth place finish in the BBL Championship, setting up a Playoff game with the Sheffield Sharks, as they beat the Prestige Homes MK Lions 89-72 on Sunday. The Rocks lost heavily to the Sharks on Wednesday night, so will need to turn that around if they are to go beyond the Playoff quarter-finals.

The Rocks were led by 25 points and 9 rebounds from Mike Copeland, while Nick Livas had a massive game with 15 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. The key run came just before the half, as Copeland hit four free-throws in a 10-2 push to make the score 45-37 at the break, from where the hosts didn’t look back.

Finally on Sunday, the Worcester Wolves, whose fate outside of the Playoff places was already sealed, knocked off the fourth-placed Cheshire Jets with a huge 86-109 road win. Worryingly for the Jets, that means that they go into their Playoff quarter-final with the Raiders having lost three of their four games in April, including a defeat to the Raiders earlier in the month.

Danny Gilbert finished the season in astonishing fashion, with 11 three-pointers and 37 points to go with his 8 rebounds. The Wolves had a lightning start to the game as they converted an early 5-0 advantage into a 7-19 lead after four minutes with Danny Gilbert netting four early three-pointers. But the Jets came all the way back to lead 35-34 in the second stanza, before giving that up in the run in to half time.

The visiting Wolves sealed the game with a key run at the end of the third quarter as, after the hosts had got back to within one, they rattled off 8 straight points including two three-pointers in 23 seconds from David Watts.