After the pulsating opening leg in Leicester ended in an all too rare stalemate at 90 apiece, it was the ultimate winner takes all scenario, a task made even harder by the fact that Riders hadn't won in the North East since a Leon McGee inspired display gave Bob Donewald's side a win in the 1996/97 season...........
If anyone had told me we would have been 18-6 down after one quarter on the back of 3/18 shooting, i would have sent for the men in white coats but the scoreboard wasn't lying. Eagles came out to knock us out of our stride and their manhandling defense made every Riders offense an exercise in ball control and execution, something we never quite came to terms with early doors. Bradd Wierzbicki was clearly a marked man after his 32pt outing in the home leg and he was given some seriously close attention throughout, Andrew Thomson and Darius Defoe both got going early inside and they were mopping up at the other end as Riders missed opportunities were eagerly rebounded by the Eagles.
Bizarrely though, as bad offensively as Riders were early on, Eagles were not a great deal better and the lead only peaked at 12 at the half as a Flournoy offensive rebound and stickback sent the Eagles in up 32-21 at the half after a 15-15 second quarter.
The lead went out to 16 on a Chapman triple with 3m gone in the 3rd and Riders looked done for at this point but 4 in a row from Hardy, a Sullivan inside move[pic above] and back to back treys from Cam Rundles and John Griffin suddenly got the away support jumping and the home fans chewing their fingernails, 2/2 from Griffin cut it to a 6pt game at 46-40 with 2m left of the third, a Thompson move plus 1/2 from the Eagles big man made it a 49-40 game with 10 minutes of winner takes all ball to go.
A Charles Smith three took the lead back to a high point at 14 again early in the 4th but Riders had one more big push in them and it was fired by the forgotten man of the season. Enter Flinder Boyd. The introduction of the GB point and Barry Lamble off the bench saw Riders start to find an offensive rhythm and two nice moves from Lamble got the team firing. A Boyd 15 footer was quickly followed by a three from the corner from the now fully fit guard and it was down to seven at 58-51.
Ayron Hardy [pic above] made both from the line to cut it to 5 and Rundles made 1/2 to make it a two shot game! Riders rebounded a Smith miss and got up the floor to find Sullivan outside the arc but his triple attempt drew iron, if that had dropped who knows what could have happened? Chapman nervously split 2/4 from the line as the hosts were rocking now but a Rundles miss was compounded by a big pressure relieving triple from Thomson to make it 63-54 with 1.15 remaining. The home fans thought that was it but Riders still refused to lie down and four quick Rundles points were only answered by 1/2 from Smith, a nice Riders offense then found Griffin open and he swished a big threeball but agonizingly his foot was on the sideline and the score was waved off, 66-63 with 27s would have given us half a chance for a smash and grab but 66-60 with 27s left meant only one thing, foul and stop the clock. Unfortunately for us, Smith and Paul Gause held their nerve and Riders came up short 71-63.
For sure it was a strange game to watch with the 18-6 opening quarter effectively sealing our fate but i'm looking at the bigger picture for now, that being the league title which i believe we have our best ever chance of landing, we can learn from this defeat and move onwards and upwards!
Thanks to Dave Lowerson for the photo's above!
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