Cheshire Phoenix stretched their winning run in the BBL Championship to four matches with a 83-70 victory at Plymouth Raiders on Sunday.

The Nix have a BBL Cup final and a BBL Trophy quarter-final to look forward to this month.

But head coach Ben Thomas insists that qualifying for the Championship play-offs remains a top priority .

Robert Sandoval in action in Cheshire Phoenix's win at Plymouth Raiders

And Cheshire's hopes of doing just that were boosted by the convincing win over out-of-form Plymouth.

The Raiders went into the game on the back of a BBL Trophy quarter-final defeat at home to Leicester Raiders.

But their hopes of bouncing back - and ending a losing run in the league that now stands at six matches - were dashed by the Nix.

Thomas' team were faster out of the traps and they won the first quarter 17-12.

But Plymouth bounced back to edge the second and third quarters to level the scores at 56-56.

And, when the Raiders hit a triple to move 59-56 in front at the start of the fourth quarter, Cheshire looked up against it.

But, with their backs against the walls, they produced a stunning run of 14 points without reply to kill the contest.

Birthday boy Malcolm Riley starred for Cheshire Phoenix at Plymouth Raiders

The outstanding trio of Malcolm Riley (24 points), Raheem May-Thompson (24) and Orlan Jackman (14) did most of the damage for the Nix, who punished Plymouth's sloppiness with 26 points from turnovers.

Birthday boy Riley, who turns 25 today, was one rebound away from a double-double while Jackman also contributed 10 boards.

The success hauled Cheshire up to sixth in the Championship standings with at least three games in hand on all of the sides above them.