The scene is set for a tight and tense VCARS.co.uk Division 2 Men season after the opening weekend games were all decided by ten points or less.

 

80	73

Manchester Magic overcame a poor start to defeat Birmingham Mets 80-73 on Saturday.

 

Mets jumped out to a 13-4 lead early in the game, but an 11-0 run by Magic to finish the second quarter put them in the lead at the half. It was a lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

 

Josh Houghton finished with 22 points for Magic, whose 46-35 edge in rebounding proved critical, especially their 24 offensive rebounds as opposed to Mets' 20 defensive boards.

 

Connor Murtagh (14), Usman Baba (13) and Alex Fortnam (10) all scored in double figures for Manchester and Loick Pouale finished 1 point short of a double-double with 10 rebounds. Antony Josh Wareham (18) and Allan Bean (16) led Mets.

 

65	72

Newham (NASSA) Neptunes won 72-65 at Derbyshire Arrows in their debut at this level on Saturday.

 

Neptunes took the first period 27-19 and pushed that lead out to as many as 14 in the second quarter. Arrows then scored the last six points of the first half and the first seven points of the second half to narrow the gap to 1.

 

After Arrows had finally managed to level the game at 46, NASSA went on an 8-0 run to take control again and had extended their lead to 61-50 by the end of the third.

 

Arrows got as close as four points in the final period, but were unable to score enough points to take the win.

 

Jeffery Danchie (27 points, 7 rebounds), Chukwuemeka Obanye (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Steve Vear (7 steals, 7 assists, 6 rebounds) filled the stats sheet for Neptunes with Rob Valentine (32 points) and Andrew Chiguri (10 points, 16 rebounds) responding in kind for Arrows.

 

78	80
overtime

 

London neighbours PAWS London Capital and Eastside Eagles took an extra period to be separated on Saturday as Eagles won 80-78 after overtime.

 

Capital looked to have taken control of the game with a 25-10 third quarter that gave them a 46-34 lead, but Eagles grabbed the momentum by scoring 29 points in the final quarter and maintained their push to sneak the extra period by two points.

 

Craig Pringle top scored for Eagles with 20 points. Capital's Ibrahim Gariba was the game's leading scorer with 24.

 

72	62

Glamorgan Gladiators started their league season in strong fashion with a 72-62 home victory against London Westside on Sunday.

 

Gladiators took the game by the scruff of the neck with a 24-12 opening quarter and were still up by 11 at half-time. Westside made some headway in the third quarter, but Glamorgan responded in the fourth to claim the double-digit win.

 

American Matthew Gwynne led Gladiators' scoring with 21.

 

64	58

London United pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat Team Solent 64-58 on Sunday.

 

Neither team could stamp their authority on the game throughout with United ahead by just three at half-time and Solent hitting back to lead by one going into the final quarter.

 

United put up the best defensive quarter of the whole game in the fourth as they held Solent to 11 points and scored 18 of their own to secure the win.

 

Elvisi Dusha led United with 18 points and Clayton Milner top scored for Solent with 17.