Love disappointed by painful defeat

Plymouth head coach Gavin Love was understandably disappointed after seeing his Raiders side crash to a 115-94 defeat to Newcastle in the BBL Cup Final.

The Raiders had no answer to the prolific Charles Smith, and saw themselves in foul trouble in the second half, losing Paul Williams and Michael Ojo, while James Jones played the whole of the second half on four fouls.

Many had fancied the Raiders to push Fab Flournoy’s side all the way, but it wasn’t to be.

Love said: “It was a painful defeat. I’m really disappointed. We didn’t get going. Charles Smith went off and we had a lot of trouble stopping him.

“As a whole, we weren’t smart, we made too many mistakes, uncharacteristic mistakes like turning the ball over, and it’s not something we normally do.

“But we’ve made progress, we got to the final and we’ve got three more to go.

“It’s our first cup final for a while and we’re going to bounce back. We’re capable of beating any team by 20 points.

“On the day we got punished. Congratulations to Newcastle, they did a great job.”