LEICESTER Riders’ spectacular second-half comeback could do them as much harm as good when the sides meet again tonight, according to Andy Thomson.

The two teams with 100% records in this season’s British Basketball League meet on level terms for tonight’s BBL Cup semi-final second leg at Sport Central after a 90-90 draw in the east Midlands.

Arguably the momentum is with the visitors after clawing back a 42-21 deficit at the John Sandford Sports Centre, but power forward Thomson dismisses the idea they have any kind of psychological edge.

Six ft 10in Thomson, the Eagles’ leading summer signing, said: “I feel not over-confident but confident,. I feel that in all the other guys in the team.

“We know what they can do but last week playing back-to-back games and playing at their place – which is a tough place to play – it was not a big deal we lost a 21-point lead in the second half because of what we accomplished and what we showed them we can do.

“We just ran out of steam and all the close plays came down to lack of energy. We are confident we should be fine.

“It was an emotional comeback for them. Whether they can come back up, I don’t know. Ours was just down to energy.”

Thomson knows how to beat the Eagles, having been part of the Mersey Tigers team which knocked them out of both cup competitions last season after two-legged semi-finals. Again, he thinks energy was a key factor – and the fixture list means it will not play a significant part tonight.

He added: “We (Mersey) always knew they had an old team so we would try and schedule back-to-back games because they could not recuperate in time. We have a week behind us now. We are fresh, so I don’t think that is going to be a factor as it was last year and the end of the year before when we beat them in the play-offs.