Preview: Scorchers @ Raiders

Surrey Scorchers travel south for their first post-Christmas BBL Championship clash when they face the Plymouth Raiders on Sunday afternoon.

Plymouth University Raiders vs Surrey Scorchers
BBL Championship
Sunday 27th December 2015
4pm tip-off
Click here for away travel information

The Opposition

The Raiders made their breakthrough into the BBL 11 years ago, debuting during the 2004/05 season to take a respectable 9th place after cruising to 1st place in the EBL Division 1.

Since then the West Country outfit have consistently flirted around the lower end of the BBL Play-offs, narrowly missing out for the last two seasons with 9th and 10th place finishes.

The Ones to Watch

Raiders player-coach Daryl Corletto sits 4th in the BBL average points table on 18.5ppg, just 0.25 off Scorchers point guard KC Ross-Miller, and will be a huge scoring threat for Creon Raftopoulos’ men.

Former London Lions forward Adrian Sturt arrived in Plymouth over a month ago and has already bolstered their roster considerably, scoring double figures in four out of six appearances thus far.

The Roster

Following yesterday’s announcement, Will Neighbour will be out of action for the remainder of the 2015/16 BBL season after undergoing surgery on a shoulder injury.

Coach Creon continues his search for a suitable replacement with hopes of a signing to be made before Sunday’s clash.

The Form

Plymouth were on the wrong end of an agonising 100-102 defeat at home to Manchester last weekend thanks to a killer final quarter from the Giants. Coach Corletto will be especially disappointed after netting a game-high 34 points in the tie.

The defeat leaves Raiders 11th in the BBL Championship table with just 1 win in 4 league games.

Raiders last 5 league games: LLWLW

Scorchers meanwhile also leaked more than a century of points on the road to Worcester Wolves, despite KC Ross-Miller potting 26 points, closely followed by Nick Schlitzer and Tayo Ogedengbe on 20 and 17 points respectively.

Surrey do have the confidence of 2 wins in their previous 5 games though, including important victories against fellow play-off contenders Bristol Flyers and Manchester Giants.

Scorchers last 5 league games: LWLWL

Head-to-Head

Surrey Scorchers 91-86 Plymouth University Raiders
Saturday 24th October 2015
BBL Championship

A 35 point final quarter haul for Scorchers saw them take the win in the two sides’ only meeting thus far this season, with DJ Felder taking an impressive double-double of 20pts/10reb to secure a thrilling home win.

Coach’s Corner

Commenting on last Friday’s defeat at Worcester, Coach Creon said: “We started slow and that really impacted our chances in the game.

“We fought hard in the 3rd quarter to claw back but Wolves were hitting 3 pointers for fun. Our defensive game improved but we still need to maintain that intensity for the full 40 minutes.

“Plymouth will be a different game for us. They have some big attacking threats but we ran out  winners last time so I am certain we can do this again.”