Sat, 24th Mar: Plymouth Raiders raid London United at home..

Saturday 24th March, 2007

BBL CHAMPIONSHIP

London United 72-104 Plymouth Raiders  

QUARTERSCORES:

18-29, 30-53, 52-80, 72-104

GAME TOP SCORERS:

London United (Marcus Knight 15, Tarick Johnson 14, Steve Ogunjimi 9)

Plymouth Raiders (Carlton Aaron 28, Alister Gall 22, Gaylon Moore 18)

London United's BBL Championship play-off hopes now hang by a thread going into the final 3 matches of the season following a double loss last weekend and a shock 86-84 win for Leicester Riders over Newcastle Eagles. United now lie in the 8th and final play-off birth. Crucially, Chester Jets have one match in hand over United with the better head-to-head points record which will see the 2005 Champions finish above London if the sides finish level on points.

The weekend started badly for United with a comprehensive home defeat by Plymouth Raiders in which London had no answer to Raiders big centre Carlton Aaron, whilst the Plymouth defence targeted Tarick Johnson to restrict the BBL's top points scorer to just 14 . Plymouth hit the opening points of the match as Gavin love sunk two triples before Aaron went to work, hitting 22pts and 17 rebounds in the first half. United lost every quarter, making a recovery in the 3rd but could only get the Plymouth lead down to 18pts before Raiders pulled away again. United frustration boiled over in the final stanza as Marcus Knight (top scorer for London) was ejected after becoming incensed following an obvious foul right under the officials nose with no call made. Bryant Feggins also picked up two technical fouls for arguing with the officials over a series of bizarre calls. On the final buzzer, the United fans showed their displeasure with the referees who had a particularly poor night.

However, United can't blame the defeat on the poor quality of the officiating.This defeat was about the excellence of Plymouth' s ball movement, the quality of their outside shooting combined with Aaron's almost unstoppable presence inside. Whilst only Tarick Johnson and Marcus Knight made double-figure points contributions for United, Aaron drained 28pts inside whilst Love (11) and Alister Gall (22) killed off United from beyond the arc and from mid-range. Andrew Lasker also contributed 11pts plus some excellent defence to help restrict Johnson. With Aaron withdrawn for most of the second half, Plymouth introduced Gaylon Moore at centre who proved almost as effective with 18pts.

Website content copyright of London United Basketball Club, 2006-07. Website design copyright of WebElementary 2006-07