The Glasgow Rocks Mychal Green commented before his side's quarter final first leg match-up against the UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders that on any given night 'anybody could beat anybody' which was proven to be correct as his team won the first round series 159-144.

The second leg win over the Raiders – dismantling Coach Love's team – showed that the fifth seeded Rocks could not only hang with the big boys (Plymouth had competed in two cup finals earlier on in the year) but outplay them and prove themselves to be a highly dangerous outfit themselves.

The Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders are all too aware of the threat the Glasgow Rocks present, having suffered two defeats at their hands earlier on in the season, so you can be sure that they won't be taking Coach Sterling Davis' team lightly.

“You can't allow them to play to their tempo,” pointed out coach Paternostro. “They do a great job of controlling the tempo and controlling the game, so I think it's important that you don't allow them to be comfortable in how they play.”

“They're a good team, an intelligent team that doesn't make many mistakes, so you have to make sure that you don't allow them to dictate the game.”

Another reason the Rocks are so dangerous is their new found strength in depth. Earlier on in the season, Coach Davis' squad was stretched to it's fullest while the back-court parring of EJ Harrison and Mychal Green spent time on the sidelines. But those enforced changes allowed former role players, Danny Huffor and Andrew Wedemire to gain extra time on the floor and gain confidence which has helped come play-off time.

“Sterling (Davis) is a good coach so it's not a surprise to me once they got their team healthy again, especially getting EJ (Harrison) back, that they would play well at this stage of the season.

“It's similar to us - when we lost Royster we were able to get Sherlock and Anderson more minutes and get into the flow, which I feel has helped us at this stage of the season. Same thing for them with Huffor and Wedemire: those guys, when those injuries occurred, those guys were able to step up and now it's made them a stronger team.”

The first leg of the BBL semi-final is being played at the Kelvin Hall Indoor Sports Arena with tip-off coming at 7:30PM.

The second leg is to be held at Loughborough University on Sunday 6th May and tickets are available online at www.leicesterriders.co.uk until midnight. After that time, there will be limited availability on the door.

Follow the Leicester Riders Twitter account for all the latest news @ridersbball

Keith Firmin is a freelance journalist who reports for the Leicester Riders and can be contacted at: Keify34@googlemail.com