BULLYING Leicester Riders almost got a bloody nose courtesy of the Cheshire Jets at the Northgate Arena as the sides met in the BBL Championship.

Rob Paternostro's Riders have been the only team to convincingly beat the Jets this season, winning both past encounters by 21 point blow-outs.

And while for a period of time Sunday's game looked to be going the same way, John Lavery's Jets, battered and low as they fight injury and a six-game losing streak, suddenly found their missing gear to take the fight to their visitors and go from 20 points down at the start of the fourth, to within one play of winning with 15 seconds remaining.

The Jets started the game matching their bogey team for this season, Colin O'Reilly sparking things off with a lay-up for two.

For every score the Jets made however the Riders matched them. For every Bill Cole rebound or Adam Brown finger-roll Andrew Sullivan or Cameron Rundles nailed a two-pointer of their own.

By the end of the first quarter however the Jets led by a single point 14-13.

In the second the wheels came off slightly. The Riders stepped things up a notch and a seven-point run at the start for the Riders put the home side on the back foot.

Despite keeping the scoreline ticking over slowly, the Jets saw the Riders own the quarter despite Jamal Williams failing to score all five of his free throws to that point.

The credit for the Riders' success went mostly to Bradd Wierzbicki

Allowing the second period to run away from them would later cost the Jets dear but as they went into half-time trailing 42-28 the feeling was that once more the Riders had the Jets' number this season.

As the third got underway the Jets had a flurry, closing the gap to eight points thanks to Matt Schneck and a brilliant three-pointer from Bill Cole.

But soon the Riders regained control, tough defence keeping the Jets at bay while at the other end soft defence allowed their to stretch out a 17 point lead.

That deficit became 20 with the first play of the fourth and the Northgate Arena faithful feared a third blow-out by the Midlanders in their own back yard this season.

But despite injuries, fatigue and the pressure on the players and staff after a six-game losing streak, the Jets switched gears and, like Muhammed Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle, they came off the ropes and hit the Riders hard leaving the visitors reeling and their coach Paternostro getting ever more frustrated.

An eight point run from the Jets consisted of skipper Colin O'Reilly sinking from downtown followed swiftly by a long three from Adam Brown and a Keith Page double on the break to reduce the deficit to nine points.

A few plays later the Jets enjoyed another little run, Brown with the double and O'Reilly getting the 'and one' after a foul on his shot. He made the single free-throw for a three-point play and the Jets were within seven.

Another successful 'and one' play got the Jets to 70-76 and the comeback was on.

Great Britain captain Drew Sullivan missed two late free throws to kill the game with around 30 seconds remaining and another triple from O'Reilly reduced the deficit to three points with 1t5 seconds remaining.

But a Brett Royster alley-oop just gave the Riders the edge and though the Jets tried to hold the clock up with late fouls to prolong the game Wierzbicki, who finished with a game-high 23pts, made his free throws to make it 80-73 to the Riders and leave the Jets heartbroken.

Afterwards Lavery said : “The message in the locker room is we've got to come and play for 40 minutes.

“There were some times out there I didn't think we matched their energy or desire but if we come with the same energy and desire as we did going down into the fourth quarter we can start picking up games.

“There was a lot of energy expended in that fourth quarter. We lose the game by seven with 40 seconds to go we were one pass from being one point down and it just changes the whole complexion of the game.

“We know it's there, we've just got to work a little bit harder on the practice floor and the game floor to put it right.

“There are positives to take from this defeat. It's hard obviously to make sure the guys know those things at the moment because everybody's down but there are positive things which we will talk about come practice on Tuesday and try to put those into practice to come out with that win.

“We can't fault them for their effort but it has to be for 40 minutes, it can't be on one quarter and switch off a quarter it has to be there for 40 minutes so until we do that it's going to be tough to pick up some wins but I'm confident. These guys want to get that win as badly as possible.”

And they will need it if they are to maintain their play-off hopes. Losing their head-to-head against Durham Wildcats on Saturday left the Jets needing to make a big push for the post-season competition, leaving nothing to chance.

“There's a long way to go,” said Lavery. “We have another 15-16 games to go so there's a hell of a lot to play for. Not just ourselves, all the other teams in that position fighting for play-off places and it's even close at the top as well so there's a long way to go in the season and we're confident of making the play-offs.”