There are still five unbeaten teams in the National Trophy after last weekend's matches.
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90 |
Bradford Dragons maintained their perfect start to the season winning a thriller in the capital, 90-86 against Westminster Warriors.
Bradford led by eleven points at half-time, but Warriors pegged them back in the second half and managed to take the lead in the closing moments behind some impressive shooting from Leon Bennett-Harris (22) and Jonathan Johnson (20).
Dragons are made of stern stuff though and they rallied to retake the lead and hold on for the win behind 16 points apiece from Daumants Pabrieza and
Rihards Sulcs (190-F-87).
Bradford guard Bobby Edmunds (pictured) commented: "We had control of the game in the first half but then they hit some big threes to get them back into it. We managed to make some key stops though and produced some great offensive plays down the stretch, which gave us the win. It was overall a great team win to keep us undefeated thus far."
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86 |
Hemel Storm continued their impressive start to the season with a resounding
86-51 win over Worthing Thunder on the south coast.
After Thunder scored seven points in the first three minutes of the game, they were held to just 26 points over the next 27 minutes as Storm won each of the middle two periods by double digits to lead 65-33 at the final break.
Storm were led by 22 points from Louis Sayers as they shot 52% both from the floor overall and from behind the arc.
Joe Carter led Worthing with 11 points and he commented: "The first half wasn't very good for us because we were not getting the right looks. Second half was a little better but they were too organised at the end of the day and it is a good lesson for us. Games like this will make us better and make us a stronger unit."
Storm head coach Dave Titmuss stated: "I thought both teams played really hard for 40 minutes which was impressive, but we were generally able to get better shots than they did and that was the decisive difference in the end.
"Like Worthing, I feel that we're still in a preparation stage because a lack of resources meant we had to assemble the squad quite late, but our 12-man rotation on Sunday gave younsters like
Jacob Lloyd (185-G-94), Mike Darlow and Jacob Barr a chance to gain valuable experience and they responded extremely well."
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63 |
Essex Leopards picked up their first Trophy win of the season with a
77-63 victory over winless Brixton Topcats on Friday night.
New addition Simon Cummings led Leopards with 21 points and 6 assists as a 52-40 edge in rebounds and marked advantage at the free throw line (Leopards went to the line 41 times and Topcats shot only 30% from the stripe) saw the home team take the spoils.
The fourth quarter started with Topcats just three points behind, but an 'and one' and a technical foul inside the first twenty seconds set the tone for a period that Leopards would win 22-11.
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84 |
Tees Valley Mohawks remained unbeaten as they topped Leicester Warriors 81-64 in Leicester on Saturday.
Mohawks held an eight point lead after one quarter and despite Leicester hiting back in the second, they won the second half commandingly to head back to the north east with a comfortable win.
Jorge Ebanks (25) and Jamie Kohn (21) continued their bright start to the season by leading Mohawks in scoring. Elliott Sentance again led Warriors with 12.
Tees Valley coach Steve Butler commented: "Our second half performance was much better. We increased the tempo defensively and caused Leicester to turn the ball over 27 times in the game. Jorge was fantastic today, he was everywhere on the court. We had lapses again in the second quarter but we showed we have depth in the squad with everyone contrubuting on the score sheet and getting valuable minutes."
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77 |
Derby Trailblazers improved to 2-0 in Trophy play with a 77-55 win at Team Northumbria on Saturday.
![<a href=]()
Tom Sherlock (204-F-81, college:
Wayne St., MI)" align=right src="http://www.englandbasketball.co.uk/uploads/National%20League/12-13Season/TomSherlock121001.jpg">After an evenly contested opening quarter Derby held their hosts to just three points in the second period, whilst scoring 22 of their own to open up what seemed to be an unassailable lead.
Northumbria responded in the third quarter with a 25-10 period and they got as close as seven points in the final period, but were unable to make it all the way back and Derby produced another run at the end of the game to give the final score a its lopsided look.
Nick Rose had 24 points and
Tom Sherlock (pictured) and 20 points and 12 rebounds. Jamie Glen led Northumbria with 18.
Derby coach Jamie Maudsley was happy with his team's defensive performance: "Overall, we are still a work in progress, but what I'm looking at is whether or not we're improving every game and I think we did that against Northumbria. Defensively, we were very good, because we held a good team to just fifty-five points.
"We tried out a couple of different defences in the second quarter with the result that we held them so just three points from a solitary field goal. We got some really good stops, we rebounded the ball really well and we stopped their penetration. As a result, I think that quarter was the best we've played defensively this season, but I still don't think we were perfect, so hopefully we can still improve on that too."
Image - Alan Mousley
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63 |
Last year's treble winners Essex Leopards played their best game of the young campaign on Sunday as they defeated Medway Park Crusaders
80-63 at Basildon Sporting Village.
With recent additions Simon Cummings (14 points) and Carl Josey (13 points and 14 rebounds) contributing well they had too much for the Kent-based side.
The first quarter ended 26-23 in favour of Crusaders, but they were held to just 9 points in each of the second and third quarters, leading to Leopards having a 60-44 advantage going into the final period.
Crusaders did get the gap down to 9 points in the fourth quarter led by 20 points from Mannock Lual, but a 10-4 run by Leopards finished off the game.
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44 |
Reading Rockets tasted defeat in their first Trophy game of the season as they went down 65-44 to Team Northumbria on Sunday.
A stifling Team Northumbria defence held Rockets to 9 points in the opening quarter and never allowed Reading to post more than 14 points in any of the subsequent periods.
Whilst Northumbria were hardly setting the scoreboard alight themselves, they were able to win each of the quarters and pull away for a comfortable win.
Siman Stewart was the game's top scorer with 16 points as Northumbria picked up their first ever Trophy win.
BAT 0201/11. Low was surprised about these rumours and told he had never thought about leaving Dnipropetrovsk.
