AN unsavory outburst from visiting coach Rob Paternostro failed to take the shine of a glittering performance by the Cheshire Jets and in particular Gareth Murray.

Murray scored an incredible 20 points in eight first-half minutes in the first and second periods which set the Jets on the road to a comprehensive victory against a tough Leicester Riders side.

Never mind that the visitors were robbed of the talents of Lataryl Williams with injury last week, with JR Blount, Ryan Zamroz, Robert Youngblood and new signing Frank Holmes Paternostro had a squad with the talent to test the Jets.

But such was the form of Murray, who head coach Paul Smith aptly described as 'hot-handed' after the game, and the Jets as a unit that the Riders could not get any momentum and in the end were left to resort to bad-mouthing refs, opposition players and anything else that they could blame their ineffectiveness on.

Every one of the Jets' starting five, which did not include the injured Colin O'Reilly, scored in double-figures. Murray ended the game with a game-high 28-points personal which included a beautiful one-handed alley-oop set up by Jeremy Bell.

"Gareth was fantastic today at both ends of the floor," said Smith. "We know he plays a defence but he's had some games this season where he's just exploded offensively. He's a real confidence player going forward and he's had a little lull lately so it's good to see him come through, it's well timed."

Bell has rediscovered his scoring touch in time for the play-offs as he sunk 22 and there were significant scoring contributions from Calvin Davis, Quemont Greer and Matt Schneck.

Schneck was unwittingly at the centre of controversy after an incident where Youngblood went down hurt in the final quarter as the game slipped away from the Riders.

During a time-out to deal wit the stricken player, Paternostro, frustrated in the face of defeat, chose to loudly accuse the centre of cheating. He later seemed to enter a conversation with the BBL rookie in a desperate attempt to affect his game.

But as Schneck brushed the rival coaches words aside, so did Jets head coach Paul Smith as he refused to be drawn on the incident.

"Coaches will do stuff like that," he said. "I focus on my team, I'd never speak to an opposition player but he's chosen to do that.

"But he's picked on the wrong guy because Matt wouldn't notice it, he just carried on playing hard until the end."

By the end Phil Brandreth, Ryan Gallagher and Niel Gillard came on to rest some of the regular starters and Brandreth got in on the action, scoring a two and a three in his cameo.

"Phil did well," said Smith. "He obviously didn't listen to the team-talk because he scored five points in two minutes and he never made a single pass! He'll do a job for us when needed and he's there ready whenever and I totally trust him."

That team-talk had focused on teamwork and spreading the scoring load. The Jets put that into practice well at the Northgate Arena and it was a performance that could prove key with the play-offs looming.

"I was a bit concerned after a tough game and a long journey on Saturday and being a man down," said Smith. "But to see the way the guys played tonight with the team play, moving the ball, getting assists, we play so much better when we do that.

"Part of the challenge is we have some great one-on-one players but you can't play one-on-one all game because the other guys get frustrated not getting a touch of the ball so we had to get back to that team ethic.

"I'm not saying we cracked it, but if you look at the game and the assists they were well above our average.

"One of the things we don't do with Gareth and sometimes Colin is when they get hot we should keep going to them. What we've tended to do this year is figure out a way to beat a team three or four baskets on the trot and then we've tried to do something else and we talked about that today.

"I used to watch the Boston Celtics growing up with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale but they had an offence called 'hot hands' and that was all it was, whoever was hot we'll get you the ball in the right spot and tonight that's what we did with Gareth, we got him open and he was knocking them down and we need to do that more often.

"With a team approach our shooting was shared more equally, our points were shared more equally, our rebounders rebounded and our guards assisted. Leicester are no slouches and they're tough, they can play so it was good."

Smith said that O'Reilly would likely be back for the final weekend of the regular season next week as the Jets make their final preparations for the play-offs and said tonights performance against the Riders was a key one at a key time.

"This is big," he said. "It's very important going into the play-offs. We can look at tape of the Plymouth game and see what frustrated us and what we did wrong but it's always good to look at the things you do right as well as that creates a vision for you for the next game and we've got that today and we can go into the last few weeks with a bit of confidence.

"Next week's games are irrelevant to us in terms of position so we can focus fully on preparation for the play-offs in those games.

"We may get Plymouth in the play-offs which will be tough but top to eighth will be tough, top v eighth will be tough. It's home and away and this is the most equal league that I have known in my time.

"I don't care who we get in the play-offs, I just want us to continue to build on today. We're looking for that extra 10% teamwork and I think we saw that today."