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Basketball: History awaits Leicester Riders

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Forty minutes – that is all that separates Leicester Riders from a place in history.

Just one more win will see the squad achieve something none of their predecessors have come anywhere near doing in almost 46 years of trying.

Cups and play-offs can be won in a handful of games, to win the league requires a level of relentless consistency that hitherto Leicester basketball has never even been close to.

But now the title is just one victory away and they have five opportunities to claim it, starting with tonight's visit of Durham Wildcats (7.30).

To be crowned champions of Britain in front of their own supporters at John Sandford Sports Centre is very much Plan A, but the fallback will be tomorrow's trip to bottom side Mersey Tigers (4.00).

Rob Paternostro is already the club's greatest ever coach by pretty much any measure, but this achievement will etch him into immortality for the Riders faithful. As ever, he is trying to play things down ahead of the game.

"For me it's business as usual," he insisted. "We've had a successful run over the past couple of weeks and that was important, but until anything is decided we look at it as a game that we have to go out and win.

"We've been very good at doing that this season.

"We're looking forward to tonight, we understand the implications of the game, but this is a group that is used to these types of games and we're expecting a special atmosphere," said Paternostro.

"This season we've fed off the energy in that building and it's an opportunity for us to play in front of those great fans and do something special."

Riders haven't lost a league game in 2013, a club record 14 consecutive top-flight victories, but while the first eight were spread over two months, the last six of them came in only 11 days.

Paternostro has been keen to laud his players, who shrugged off injury and adversity during that spell to put themselves on the brink of greatness.

"Going into that stretch I knew we had a special group, but to go through that with all that we've had to deal with and come out of there with six wins just reinforces my belief that this group is a team you don't see that often.

"They are not only talented, but also committed and with the ability to rise to the occasion." Almost forgotten by most in the build-up to the game are the visitors, but Paternostro is concerned by the challenge the Wildcats present.

"They've won on the road against Plymouth and Worcester and they are playing for their play-off lives."

If Riders don't finish the job tonight, they have another chance tomorrow against a team who are battling to avoid becoming the first team in BBL history to go through an entire season without winning.

Riders: Okoro, Couisnard, Stewart, Sullivan, Calvo, Hopkins, Taylor, Anderson, Washington, Lamble, Haggith, Gould, Dawes, Maynard, Losonsky, Rowe.

Wildcats: Attah, Bohannon, Johnson, Page, Elderkin, Reynolds, Guinane, Baldarelli, Chambers, Bucci, Keister, Fowler.

Tigers: Allerston, Lockett, Wait, Hudson, Semi, McGinn, Hulsen, Calvo, Bigley, Pilkington, Gallagher.

Basketball: History awaits Leicester Riders


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