Raiders still unbeaten

By Greg Oakford
THE Knox Raiders’ undefeated start to season 2011 has continued with wins by both the men and women in Frankston during leg one of the Hog’s Breath Cup.
Highly touted recruit Sam Woosnam made her debut for the Raiders women, who entered the contest with the Blues as hot favourites.
The Raiders got the early jump on the home side and took a 20-13 lead into the quarter-time break.
But the second term belonged to the Blues who pegged the Raiders lead back to three at the main break.
After some adjustments at half-time, the Raiders put the defensive clamps on the Blues. Keeping their opponent to just nine points in the third and forcing 10 turnovers, the Raiders took a nine-point lead into the final quarter and continued to stifle the Blues, keeping them to just six points to run away with a convincing 68-47 win.
Head coach Heath Anderson acknowledged it wasn’t the best game his team had played but was happy with the second half and the adjustments made.
The men’s contest was a physical and foul-riddled game that could have easily slipped away from the Raiders in the first half thanks to some heavy fouls trouble to bigs Lester Strong and Cam Rigby. Strong was forced to sit for the majority of the first quarter with three fouls while Rigby picked up his fourth foul just one minute into the second quarter.
The Blues capitalised on the Raiders starters being off the floor and got out to a 12-point advantage with seven minutes left in the first half.
With the Blues surging and looking like they could push on to an insurmountable lead, head coach Graham Longstaff took a punt with Strong and sent him back on with still more than six minutes left in the first half.
The move worked for Longstaff and the Raiders as they went on an 11-1 run in a four-minute stretch with Strong back in the middle and cut the lead to just two points.
Led by reigning MVP C. J. Massingale, the Raiders attacked the basket with aggression in the third and led by three points heading into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter saw the Raiders extend to what looked like a game-ending 16 point lead with three-and-a-half minutes left, but a resilient Blues team wouldn’t go away that easily and got the margin back to just four points with 13 seconds left, thanks to a 20-8 run in just three minutes.
The Blues were forced to foul for the last few minutes to extend the game with the Raiders managing to finally put their opponents away 100-92.
The final leg of the Hog’s Breath Cup will be played on 20 August at Knox Basketball Stadium.
Round three will see the Raiders head home on 16 April for a double-header. The women will face Nunawading at 6pm and the men will host North West Tasmania at 8pm.