There was a surprising amount of buzz ahead of the Plymouth City Patriots matchup Friday night, as they headed to the Nation's Capital to take on league leading London Lions. Since the Patriots pulled off the impossible and somewhat embarrassing victory over the richest team in British Basketball, back in early November, the Lions had apparently penciled in the return fixture as something of a grudge match. The reality, of course, was very different. With such a gaping financial chasm between the two sides, and the fact that the Lions massively underestimated the Patriots the first time round, the only question was how much of a fight would the visiting Plymouth side put up. The answer was a relatively surprising positive performance from the Patriots. In fact they ran the Lions close for the duration of the game and with less than a minute and a half on the clock, Mason Faulkner (returning from injury) and TJ Atwood combined for consecutive scores to close the gap to just 6 points. The depth and quality of the Lions managed to see out the remaining minute and held on to win the game 91-84.
“We gave a really good account of ourselves tonight,” started head coach Paul James. He continued, “we managed to keep in touch and always found an answer to their big shots. If we can put more performances like that on the court, we'll certainly pick up some wins. We haven't given up on a playoff spot, there's too many games left for that.”
The Patriots next game isn't until the 22nd of December in what is building up to be a must win away game against the Surrey Scorchers, before heading home the following the “Christmas Jumper Game” against Caledonia on the 23rd.
Pablo Cheeks