By Ryan Gillham
The bottom two teams in the BBL Championship face each other at the Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre this Saturday evening as the Durham Wildcats welcome the Mersey Tigers.
Durham Wildcats have found it tough so far this season after only claiming two wins in their first BBL campaign, both coming against the Cheshire Jets. Mersey Tigers lie 10th in the BBL and have a record of 6-18 but need to pick up some more victories if they want to see themselves in the post season play-offs.
The Tigers come to Newton Aycliffe this weekend full of confidence and hoping for a season sweep after defeating the Wildcats on two occasions already this season in what were tight encounters as the final scores showed 85-81 and 79-68.
Head coach Dave Elderkin admits that he is unsure on what line-up his team will face but knows the game will still be a tough game whatever the combination.
“I noticed that (Antonio) Bustamante missed both games at the weekend and David Aliu missed one but I believe there has been no changes to their roster,” he said.
“We will prepare for their full squad and will probably change things up a little as we have a trip to Guildford on Sunday. Our preparation will take both games into account but we need to focus on the task in hand and that is to try and put in a strong performance against Mersey.”
The Wildcats will be looking to keep progressing well as a team with only seven games remaining in their first BBL season and hopefully can pull off some surprise results with nothing to lose as the Wildcats will miss out on the post season play-offs.
The game takes place at the Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre, tip-off 7.00pm, Saturday 24th March. The tickets are priced at £5 for adults and £4 for children or for more information call the ticket hotline on 01325 300500.