Guildford Heat Strike First Blood in CWC

Plymouth Raiders 77-83 Guildford Heat
Sunday 9th September 2007
Cup Winners' Cup First Leg
Plymouth Pavilions, Millbay Road, Plymouth, PL1 3LF, England
Tip-Off: 4.00pm


After the first-leg of the Cup Winners' Cup the advantage is with the
Guildford Heat after an 83-77 victory for the BBL Champions at the
Plymouth Pavilions on Sunday. The return leg is Saturday 15 September
at The Spectrum, with the winner being decided by aggregate score.

Last year's BBL MVP Brian Dux paced the winners with 17 points,
matched by his captain Mike Martin. DeAntoine Beasley led all scorers
with 23 points for the Raiders.

The teams traded baskets in the early exchanges until the Heat opened
the game up with an 8-0 burst. That set the tone for the first-half as
they took an 11-4 lead which they maintained through to 20-13 after
the opening ten minutes.

They stretched the lead early in the second period with an 11-5 start
that was followed soon afterwards by an 8-2 burst as the lead peaked
at 40-22. The Raiders finished the half strongly with a 7-1 response,
but the Heat scored the last bucket and led 29-43 at the interval.

In front of their home fans, the Raiders came storming back in the
third stanza as consecutive triples from Gaylon Moore and DeAntoine
Beasley narrowed the deficit to three points at 53-56 before the Heat
notched the last two baskets to maintain their edge at 53-60.

The Raiders completed a commendable comeback with 9 unanswered points
to open the fourth quarter to give them a 62-60 lead. There were six
lead changes in the ensuing minutes and the teams were knotted at 75
before the Heat's big men took charge. A basket from Mike Martin gave
the visitors the decisive lead at 75-77 before two baskets from new
signing Tony Dorsey and one from Carlton Aaron, a former Raider,
finished the game off.

The Raiders will now have to overturn a six-point deficit at The
Spectrum in order to raise the Cup Winners' Cup, it is however a venue
in which they have never won.



TOP SCORERS:
PLYMOUTH RAIDERS: D.Beasley 23, G.Moore 15, D.Lasker 12
GUILDFORD HEAT: B.Dux 17, M.Martin, T.Dorsey 13