Leicester Riders head coach Rob Paternostro hailed his team's defensive intensity after the Riders showed too much class for newly-promoted Bristol Flyers in their 83-54 win at Loughborough University.
"The game was all about our defensive performance," said the Riders chief.
"It has been an unusual build-up to the week because we were missing a number of guys in training, making it a little more difficult to prepare.
"So what we wanted to do was make the Flyers battle for every basket and then hope our offence took care of itself.
"And the guys did the job. We were pretty relentless at times, and Bristol knew they weren't going to get anything easy.
"My hat's off particularly to Rashad Hassan, who had an ankle strain all week and couldn't train, yet went out there when we had a couple of other guys out and did a heck of a job.
"But this was not about individual performance – it is about how we defend as a team, and there was a whole bunch of guys who can look back at that game with some pride."
With neither Tyler Bernadini nor Anthony Rowe playing against the Flyers the Riders have a valuable weekend off to allow both those players and Hassan to recover, before the visit of Leeds Force to Loughborough University on Sunday week.
The Riders are second in the BBL Championship after Newcastle Eagles went top with a pair of wins at the weekend.
Charles Smith made it to 6,000 career points in the BBL as he scored 20 in Eagles' 107-78 defeat of Surrey United at Sport Central on Friday.
The legendary forward passed the mark in a dominant home win. Darius Defoe also continued his impressive start to the season as he poured in a team-high 21 points.
The Eagles went on to hand London Lions, the only previously undefeated team left in the BBL Championship, their first loss, as the defending champions beat the London side on the road at the Copper Box Arena. Defoe collected 19 points and 12 boards in a 69-56 win for Eagles.
The Lions had easily beaten Plymouth Raiders 91-63 on Friday as Zaire Taylor made his home debut – but it was a Lions regular who stole the show. Rod Brown was instrumental as the hosts burst out of the blocks and took an early lead before finishing with a game-high 18 points.
The Raiders bounced back and held off a fourth-quarter comeback from Leeds Force, taking the game 73-69 at home on Sunday.
Manchester Giants climbed all the way up to the fourth spot in the table after defeating Durham Wildcats 92-84 to claim their first road win of the season. Darren Best led all scorers with 22 points.
Cheshire Phoenix also finished the weekend on a high note topping Glasgow Rocks 89-86 in Scotland.
Alex Owumi produced the scoring performance of the weekend finishing with 33 points in Worcester Wolves' 98-69 defeat of Leeds Force.
He connected on all six of his three-pointers.
Results: Newcastle 108 Surrey 78; London 91 Plymouth 63; Leeds 69 Worcester 98; London 56 Newcastle 69; Durham 84 Manchester 92; Plymouth 73 Leeds 69; Glasgow 86 Cheshire 89.
