It was a good weekend for the home teams in the National Trophy with four wins and just one defeat.

 

72	66

Bradford Dragons maintained their unbeaten Trophy record with a 72-66 success over Team Northumbria on Saturday.

 

After the teams split the first 18 points of the contest, Dragons enjoyed an 11-0 run to lead comfortably after one quarter.

 

Northumbria edged back into the game through the second and third periods and held Bradford to just 12 points in quarter three to tie the game up at 50 heading into the fourth.

 

An 8-0 run to start the final quarter saw Dragons establish a lead that they would not surrender as Bobby Edmunds (pictured) scored 9 points in the quarter on his way to a team leading 17 for the game.

 

Jason Washington was the game's top scorer with 21 and Siman Stewart added 17 for Northumbria, who are now 1-3 in Trophy play.

 

79	57

Medway Park Crusaders sent Hemel Storm to their first defeat of the season in convincing fashion, winning 79-57 in Kent.

 

A 15-5 run by Crusaders saw them move in front in the first quarter and they won each of the middle two periods in close fashion to lead 54-44 at the final break. With Storm needing points to get back into the game in the final quarter, they were held scoreless for six minutes as Medway Park stretched the lead into the twenties.

 

Disraeli Lufadeju was impressive for Crusaders with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Cole Hobin nearly had a double-double that didn't include points as he had 13 rebounds and 8 assists (and just 3 points). Dru Spinks led Hemel with 12 points.

 

98	87

Tees Valley Mohawks as good as booked their spot in the kncokout stages of the trophy with a 98-87 win over Worthing Thunder.

 

Thunder led 22-20 after one quarter, but an 18-5 run in the second put Mohawks on top and they led 50-38 at half-time. The lead fluctuated around the double-digit mark for the rest of the game, ballooning to as many as 17 inside the final 2 minutes before Worthing made a run.

 

The high scoring trio of David Hansen (26), Jorge Ebanks (21) and Jamie Kohn (18) put in another good show for Tees Valley coach Steve Butler: "We are learning as a team as I am learning as a coach, but we switched off for one minute and a comfortable lead turned into a 7 point game. It just shows you that in this league how important it is to concentrate for the full 40 minutes.

 

"David Hanson was fantastic tonight for his 26 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds, DJ Glavan made his debut and fitted in well to our system, but we will see a lot more from him over the next couple of weeks. Worthing played well and I'm sure it won't be long until they get their first victory in the pool."

 

Tomas Seduikis (23) and Joe Carter (21) both topped the twenty-point mark for Thunder, who fall to 0-3 in the Trophy. Thunder coach Daniel Hildreth was enthused by their performance: "This was a much better performance from the guys. This is one of our longest away journeys and it takes a lot out of you as a player, but they were eager and played with a lot of promise. Unfortunately turnovers and unforced errors cost us in the second quarter and that led to the loss, but the first and fourth quarters were excellent especially."

 

58	66

Reading Rockets picked up their first win of the Trophy campaign with a 66-58 win in Bristol on Saturday evening.

 

Both teams struggled to score the ball (although Rockets did end up shooting 50% from the floor) and were tied at 47 going into the final quarter.

 

A 10-3 start to the fourth by Reading, sparked by five points each from Danny Carter and Dean Williams, put them up by 7 and they held hometown Flyers at bay the rest of the way.

 

Ryan Lohfink top scored for Reading with 18 points, which was matched by Greg Streete of Bristol.

 

76	57

Leeds Carnegie opened their Trophy account with a 76-57 success over Westminster Warriors on Saturday.

 

After a tight opening quarter, Leeds opened up a big gap with a 27-14 second quarter and were not threatened the rest of the way, by a Warriors team that is now 0-3.

 

Robert Marsden had 20 points for Leeds and Dave Ajumobi added 19.