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NBL Review Guede sparkles but Hackney get lost                 NBL CONFERENCE Hackney 80  Plymouth 89 Hackney White Heat looked to build on their success in the National Trophy when they entertained Plymouth Raiders at the Space Centre on Saturday. Plymouth are always championship contenders and their early season results show that once again they will be a force to be reckoned with after a 89-80 win. The visitors started much the sharper despite the fact that they were delayed  in travelling due to one of their players, Gavin Love, having been involved in a car accident on his way to join the team bus.  A 16-5 lead after six minutes threatened to settle matters before White Heat replied with a 7-0 run triggered by back-to-back three-pointers from Grant Ebanja and Wale Akerele.  Raiders pulled out again to 10 before two late foul shots reduced the home side's deficit to 24-16 at the end of the first quarter. A 10-1 run gave Hackney their first lead with Damion Modeste and Perry Lawson  connecting from distance but an 11-0 Plymouth run, with five from new American Inyo Cue restored the 10 point margin.  But the hosts replied with nine of their own (Lawson with seven) to make it a one point game at 37-38; the sides trading scores to leave Plymouth with a 42-40 half time advantage. Raiders coach Gary Stronach must have had strong words during the interval as his side put together a 22-6 run over the first five minutes of the third  period; Rod Wellington, Cue and Deantoine Beasley making major contributions.  But Hackney would not concede matters and with Ebanja, Lawson and the  mercurial 15 year old Paul Guede coming into their own. the margin was back to five at 67-72 at the end of the quarter. When Master Guede scored the first basket of the final period an upset seemed possible.  But Dean Williams controlled matters for Raiders and despite  three-pointers from Ebanja and Guede, the home side could never get closer than six as the visitors held on to clinch victory in the opening league game. Wellington with 20, Cue 17 and Williams 16 led the way for Raiders.  Ebanja 19 and Lawson 16 had steadied Hackney but amazingly it was the England cadet Paul Guede who had led all scorers with a remarkable 22 that was the talk of the contest.    Solent Stars 100  Manchester Magic 93 Travelling to Southampton for the first game of the season  without captain Wayne Mulgrave and Sean McKie, the Magic were disappointed to lose a game which was there for the winning. Always in contention and often in the lead, an inadequate commitment in defence at times  by the Magic  let their opponents come back to take the win by 100-93. These are early days,  93 points away from home take some scoring and there are plenty of games to come.  But  coach Jeff Jones will be giving his team plenty of fatherly advice before the long journey to Plymouth at the weekend. Steven Gayle hit 33 for the visitors.     Division One: Black Country 55 Bath 63 Still smarting from the drubbing they received as the Bristol Bombers in the Division II Play-Off Final at the end of last season the freshly named Bath Romans came to do battle with the Dudley outfit in the opening game of the Division 1 season. Initially it was almost a case of déjà vu as the visitors were first to hit the net taking an early four point lead running long patient 24 second offences before shooting and on a couple of occasions exceeding their allotted possession time and committing shot clock violations and also showing the Bears defence a clean pair of heels on their well run and executed fast break offences.  Both teams struggled to find any rhythm or flow in the first quarter and at the hooter the Bears found themselves trailing 13 points to 17 despite having most of the play ruing their unconverted easy lay ups opportunities to rack up some points. Without the silky skills of Carl White (Bears leading scorer/scoring threat and main go to guy last season) still sidelined with a long term leg injury and captain Clive Allen on court leader and rebounding machine it was left to Alvin Scott and Dean Blake to protect the Bears basket whilst Tony Simms, in the role of Caractacus, fought the invaders down the other end of the floor to post a slender 1 point lead at the interval (32-31). The second half started with a catalogue of errors by the home side in which easy lay ups were missed after good ball movement and penetration to the basket. Also some even easy attempts were missed, and made to look even stupider, by the fact that Blake and Makouangou chose to attempt to slam dunk on four separate occasions only to see the ball catapulted off the ring into the safe hands of the waiting Romans. Wayne Robinson in only his third outing for the Bears showed some clever ball skills in driving to the boards and later hitting a couple of three pointers to end the 3rd quarter with Bears up by 3 points and well in control at 50 points to 47 points.  What happened in the final quarter can only be put down to  capitulation on the part of the Bears who not only made several telegraphed passes that were gratefully accepted by the visitors.. Tony Simms was forced to retire from the frae with a twisted knee problem with six minutes left on the clock and the game tied at 51 points a piece, the Romans greater will to win became evident. The Bears pushed the self destruct button dropping passes and handling the ball more in the style of Venus di Milo rather than that of Alan Iverson which was required at this stage in the game. Although the visitors failed to capitalise on their good fortune from open play the Bears' necessity, borne from a combination of frustration and a need to get possession of the ball sent the Romans to the line 14 times in this period of which they hit 9 of their shots. In contrast the home side could only muster five-yes 5 points for the whole quarter.       Click here to discuss this story

 

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