MARJON Plymouth Raiders know how high Newcastle Eagles have set the bar to win something this season.

The challenge now is to not only reach it, says Raiders' centre and leading rebounder Paul Williams, but clear it.

Raiders fell painfully by 21 points, 115-94 on British basketball's biggest stage in January 15's BBL Cup final at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

You hear a lot about how the 7,000-capacity NIA is the best place to win in the league, but less about how naturally therefore it is the worst occasion to lose.

Williams said of the team's darkest day this season: "You want to forget about it, but then you don't want to forget about it. You can't take anything away from Newcastle, because they're a great team.

"But we have to match their intensity and however they beat us, and then some. I know I learned a lot from that game. I just hope the rest of the guys have. I think they have."

Love, this week, was handed a new deal running until summer 2014, which will hopefully also persuade Raiders' top players to stay and strive for improvement long term.

Raiders chairman Bob Widdecombe has seen how Eagles have thrived under player-coach Fab Flournoy, who has been in situ at the now North East powerhouse since 2001/02.

Throughout, Flournoy has remained loyal to stars like Charles Smith who, in turn, have remained loyal to him. Fourteen BBL championships later, the winners in all of this have been Eagles themselves; the losers – the rest of the BBL.

But it took Flournoy until his fourth year in charge, 2004/05, to win something.

Raiders, chasing a second BBL crown to add to the Trophy they clinched in 2007, began moving on from January 15 against Guildford Heat, back in the league last Saturday.

There were nerves early on before Raiders convincingly broke a 41-41 tie late in the first half by outscoring Heat 57-27 the rest of the way in a 98-68 win.

Love said afterwards: "We wanted to send a message that yes, we're disappointed about the cup final, but we're moving on now. I think we did a good job of doing that against a very good Guildford team. I don't know what they (nerves) were about. There were little mistakes, but we overcame that."

He added: "I feel bad still about the final, but you're professionals. You pick yourself up and we really did that."

Williams, who helps Raiders host Glasgow Rocks at the Pavilions tomorrow (4pm), said: "I couldn't wait to play. I just had a bad taste in my mouth about how the final turned out.

"Nobody on the team expected it to be like that. I was sad for the city.

"I won the cup with Sheffield last year and wanted this year's final to be something special for Plymouth, who have never won it before.

"I really wanted to do it for Plymouth, but it wasn't the case and we still have three more trophies to try and win this season. We still have a goal."

Williams fouled out in the final after only playing 15 whistle-plagued minutes.

His huge exasperation was plain when he uncharacteristically remonstrated fiercely with the officials upon receiving his fifth infringement.

Petulant? No. Williams' massive drive to succeed this season? Correct.

He added: "To have that outcome and that result was so disappointing, but we practiced super hard last week and couldn't wait to take our frustration out on someone else.

Newcastle are the best team in the league right now, definitely, but we felt we went behind and lost our poise.

"It wasn't the first time we've been down by 10, 15 points this season, but for some reason we went down in the final and we were in panic mode.

"I don't know if it was because of the stage we were on, but that's what it felt like. We can't have that.

"We have good players and veteran players who have played at a high level, so it's no excuse. It was just a bad outcome."

PLYMOUTH Marjon entertain Hackney tomorrow (3pm) in what promises to be a tight mid-table match-up in Division Three South of the EBL at UCP Marjon.

Coach George Hatchell's team and Hackney are both currently 6-4 in seventh and sixth spots respectively in the 11-strong division.

Taunton (7-6) currently set the pace in the fourth and final play-off place in the standings.

Marjon are coming off a 24 point, 82-58 home loss to 6-2 Newham two weeks ago, while Hackney beat 3-8 Bognor 90-70 last weekend.

ADMISSION to Marjon tomorrow is priced £4 for adults, £2 concessions and £10 for a family of four (two adults and two children).

RAIDERS' GHQ Training cheerleaders are launching a junior club for budding cheerleaders to join.

It will be split across two age groups – five-nine-year-olds and 10-15-year-olds.

Classes will be held at the Nuffield Health gym at the Barbican Leisure Park in Plymouth and will see Raiders' senior cheerleaders coach the prospects.

Raiders chairman Bob Widdecombe said: "This season we've had a lot of requests for a junior cheerleading club. So many that, alongside our very successful cheerleading camps, we have decided to set up junior clubs to help coach the cheerleaders of the future."

Anyone interested in attending the classes can download an application form from the cheerleaders' website, www.raiderscheerleaders.com