Leicester’s chance to heat up title race

There’s a pivotal game in the BBL Championship title race on Friday as Leicester make the trip to leaders Newcastle.

While the Eagles hold a five win advantage over the Riders, Rob Paternostro’s men do have three games in hand and they also play Newcastle three times during the run-in, meaning their title hopes are still in their own hands.

Newcastle went down to a 85-76 defeat to Plymouth last weekend, but still top the tree with an 18-2 record.

They have beaten the Riders already this season, in the second leg of the BBL Cup semi-finals, a tournament which the Eagles went on to win.

Fab Flournoy said: “We haven’t played Leicester since November but they gave us two of the toughest games we have played all season then.”

His opposite number, Paternostro, knows it will be a big task for his men to stamp his authority and blow the title race wide open.

He said: “Newcastle has had an incredible start to the season, what has been impressive is they have shown the ability to win games in many different ways.

“We will have to play well at Newcastle in order to get something out of it, it is important that we take care of the ball and to not allow them any easy points.”