Sat 24 Feb: London United lose on the road to Leicester Riders..

Saturday 24th February, 2007

BBL CHAMPIONSHIP

Leicester Riders 107-70 London United  

QUARTERSCORES:

23-16, 51-33, 82-58, 107-70

GAME TOP SCORERS:

Leicester Riders (Terrence McGee 37, Yorick Williams 24, Andrew Alleyne 14)

London United (Tarick Johnson 27, LaTaryl Williams 11, Marcus Knight 9)

London United were unable to repeat their miracle performance against Leicester Riders back in September when the newest BBL team overturned a 26pt deficit to win on the buzzer in their first match at the top level. This time, a much changed Utd outfit including debutant LaTaryl Williams was unable to make it 4 wins in a row against Riders as Leicester ran out comprehensive winners 107/70.

Needing just one more win over Riders to virtually guarantee a play-off spot, London were pretty much out-played in every area. Riders opened with treys from Terrance McGee and Rob Paternostro, countered by a 3 of his own from LaTaryl Williams. Farid Haif, Tarick Johnson and LaTaryl brought Utd back to within 2pts before McGee, Andrew Alleyn and Paternostro put together an 8pt run. Johnson and Marlin Capers brought Utd back to with 4pts before Yorrick Williams hit his first of 6 treys to give Leicester a 7pt advantage.

The second stanza started disastrously for Utd as more inspired shooting from beyond the arc by McGee and Yorrick brought Riders 9 unanswered points and a 16pt lead inside the first 2 minutes. Worse still, solid Riders defence and sloppy London execution prevented Utd from registering their first points until the 3rd minute. LaTaryl managed to break the duck, but Utd baskets proved few and far between. A brief recovery led by Johnson, Laurent Irish and Haif was inevitably halted by McGee and Yorrick as Riders went into the break leading 51-35.

The second half started without Utd able to make any significant inroad on the Riders 16pt advantage. Points were traded up until Yorrick Williams went on a one-man rip hitting 4 consecutive 3pointers as Rider's lead increased to 27. Johnson hit back with back-to-back treys of his own, but by this time the damage was done with Leicester going into the final quarter up by 24pts.

This time, there was no London final stanza recovery as Riders capped a miserable night for Utd with a 15-1 rip to seal the match 107/70. McGee with 35pts lead all scorers as Tarick Johnson hit a "quiet" 27 to maintain his status as the BBL's most prolific scorer and the first player this season to pass 600pts at an average of 23 per match. LaTaryl Williams hit double figures in his first match, with Farid Haif hitting 9pts. However, the stats showed that Leicester maintained control in all areas. In particular, the turn-over curse returned with United giving the ball up no less than 25 times.

A disappointed Tony Garbelotto was philosophical in defeat:

" With us having won three consecutive close matches, Leicester out-played us today in a match that perhaps came at the wrong time for us. Having run with a skeleton 6 players for the whole of February and having been massively competitive even in defeat, we needed more than just a couple of sessions to bed in the new players. Our intensity just wasn't there tonight as players who've given everything in recent matches seemed to switch-off with the new guys coming in. But we still have to play Leicester and Chester and I'm fully confident that we'll all be singing from the same hymn sheet by the time we meet Riders at home for the 5th and final time this season and we'll secure our place in the play-offs"

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