BBL Championship: Guildford Heat aiming to forget Trophy defeat with victory at Northgate Arena

Mar 10 2011 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

GUILDFORD Heat visit the Northgate Arena on Sunday (5.30pm) still smarting from their crushing defeat to Mersey Tigers in the BBL Trophy final.

Captain Mike Martin is keen to use the lessons they learned last weekend against the Cheshire Jets.

“Everything we did right in the first half just stopped happening, and that was to our demise,” he said.

“We fell apart in the second half. I put a lot of that down to our inexperience, but also some of it down to a lack of professionalism.

“We matched the Tigers for a long time, but when it started to go wrong it shouldn’t take that long to realise what we weren’t doing right.”

Guildford head coach Creon Raftopoulos knows his team face a tough game at the Northgate.

“The Jets are two games behind the Newcastle Eagles and Tigers for the BBL Championship run-in and have only got stronger with the return of Matt Schneck,” he said.

“We beat them without him and they beat us when he returned.

“Jeremy Bell, Quemont Greer and Schneck are all tough to guard one-on-one and any defence can be punished by the three-point shooting of Colin O’Reilly and Gareth Murray.

“We spoke last time about Murray coming into the game on a hot streak but allowed him to make five three-pointers in the first half. Good shot selection and an up-tempo speed to the game will be key for us on Sunday.”