Guildford expecting Lions test

Guildford Heat coach Creon Raftopoulos believes that Prestige Homes MK Lions have the perfect set-up as his side prepare to host them on Sunday afternoon.

“Vince Macauly has created a coaches dream of a set up for Mike New at MK Lions Basketball Centre. Having your home court available when you need it is a direction all clubs are aiming for. Players have access to shoot when they need to, a special situations practise session can be called with short notice and you also get to run your junior team and community programmes under one roof.

“As a team Mike has a group of players who know their roles and are talented group capable of beating anyone in our league. Statistically they are in the top five in eight categories, leading our league in offensive rebounds and steals so you know they are aggressive on defence.

Demarius Bolds”Demarius Bolds [pictured] is one of the top scorers in the league so we know taking him away from his comfort zones will be important. [Daniel] Northern is athletic and the top rebounder in the BBL and we have to keep him off our backboards to limit their second chance points. The Lions also have [Stefan] Gill, [Carl] Josey, [Nuno] Pedroso, [Adrien] Sturt and [Howard] Crawford contributing in all departments.

“The last time we played, when we dictated the tempo we had control of the game. They very similar to us and we don’t want to get into a run and gun style of game as I feel that will give Mike’s team the edge. After 40 minutes of play whoever wins the battle in the paint should get the W.”

That game in November saw Lions run out 98-82 winners, but Heat have improved since then, and Saturday’s 30 point hammering at UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders snapped a three game winning streak.

The Heat are now eighth in the table with a 4-9 record, while Lions are up to joint sixth with six wins from 13 games.