Derby Trailblazers moved up to third spot with a comfortable 81-48 victory against London Mets at Moorways on Saturday.

 

The Trailblazers held the Londoners scoreless for the first three and half minutes of the contest while piling in eight points of their own.

 

A three-pointer from Simon Spencer followed to give Derby an 11-2 advantage and while Mets scored the next five points, the Trailblazers bounced back with another nine unanswered points. Dave Attewell began the run, but it was the ever-improving Martin Gayle who bagged the remaining seven, starting with a three from the far corner and following it up with a pair of baskets close to the hoop.

 

That sequence left Derby 20-9 ahead and although there was still one and a half minutes of the first quarter remaining, the only other player to trouble the scorers before the first buzzer was Mets' Dave Ajumobi with a six foot jumper.

 

The two sides exchanged baskets to start the second, before a clash of heads between Ajumobi and Derby's Simon Allaway left the Mets player needing a trip to hospital. As one of the visitors' better players, this must have come as a considerable blow to an already under-strength side.

 

However, the Trailblazers seized on the opportunity to extend their lead and 12 unanswered points followed midway through the quarter. Joel Madourie netted the final six of those points in quick succession leaving Derby 38-14 ahead.

 

Moments later, Allaway was able to return following treatment and he converted a long range two, followed by a trademark three-pointer to end the first half with Derby leading 47-25.

 

Gayle, Allaway and Spencer all converted further shots from downtown in a third quarter which the Trailblazers took 21-13 to set up what promised to be a high scoring finale.

 

However, it took over two minutes for either side to find the hoop as the final quarter got underway and Derby coach Clarence Wiggins was forced to call a time-out en-route.

 

In the end, it was Madourie who found his way to the basket with a close range jump-shot. As the Mets began to run out of steam, they increasingly chose to foul to stop Derby from completing fast breaks. Seven of the Trailblazers final eleven points came from the charity stripe as they chalked up an emphatic victory.

 

Dave Attewell and Sam O'Shea both produced double-doubles with Attewell scoring 15 points and taking 16 rebounds and O’Shea adding 10 boards and five assists to his 13 points. Matt Shaw and Stedroy Baker ran the floor in a calm and efficient manner throughout, on their way to seven and five assists respectively.

 

Trailblazers captain Matt Shaw was delighted with the victory but says he doesn't think Derby have seen the Londoners at their best:

 

"We really played some great basketball and although I think they have probably played better this season, we still did a great job executing our defensive game plan and controlling the tempo on offense.

 

"Our leading three scorers were our tallest three guys and I thought we did a good job finding those post players. I thought Dave and Sam in particular were both superb. We can't really ask for more from our starting two posts, they both had double-doubles again.

 

"Overall, it was an all-round good team display, five guys in double figures and eight people playing more than twenty minutes so we are very happy with how the game panned out. Having so few turnovers against them was also one of the keys to our success," he said.

 

Michael Odumoso led London with 11, with Jeff Danchie adding 10 and both Laurent Irish and Obi Obanye seven apiece.