It's a weekend on the road for Lions’ NBL Division One teams as they both face key games.
The women visit Anglia Ruskin University while the men travel to Hemel Storm.
David Lavinier’s women’s team will make the trip to Cambridge in good form with four wins in their last five league games and also collected a couple of Elite Academy League wins during the week.
That winning streak has seen them move out of the relegation zone, and they now sit ninth in the 12-team league with a 5-14 record, but with Reading and Worcester both having games in hand, the battle to avoid joining Nottingham Trent University in Division Two next season.
Anglia go into the game in fifth spot with ten wins from 16 games and will be looking for a top four spot and home court advantage in the play-off quarter-finals. One of those wins came in a thriller at Barking Abbey where they edged Lions out 54-51 after Lions had fought back from a ten point deficit. The teams also met at Anglia’s Stephen Perse Foundation venue in the National Cup with the hosts running out comfortable 76-50 winners.
Meanwhile it’s crunch time for the men’s team’s play-off hopes as they travel to a Hemel team who will fell they have under-achieved this season. Coached by former Lions legend Dru Spinks, Storm head into the weekend in sixth spot with a 14-8 record and will need to win their final four games to stand any chance of home court advantage in the play-off quarter-finals. Lions are sitting ninth in the table with 9-12 record and need at least three victories from their final five games to reach the post-season, with their visit to Reading in a fortnight’s time an absolute must-win for them.
Greg Poleon and Taylor Johnson combined for 75 points when Storm won 106-89 at Barking Abbey in November but a week later the young Lions stunned Hemel with an 85-84 road victory in the National Cup quarter-final.
American pair Poleon and Johnson have been in impressive form for Spinks’ team with the former averaging a 23.3 point, 10.5 rebound double-double while ex-Thames Valley Cavalier Johnson adds 5.6 assists to his 26.7 points and eight rebounds.
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