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NBL Review: Arrows pierce Mohawks                 NBL Round-Up National Trophy, pool round Derbyshire Arrows 98   Teesside Mohawks 93 The Derbyshire Arrows turned the basketball world on its head by defeating the reigning Conference & Play Off Champions & previously unbeaten Teesside Mohawks by an astonishing but deserved score of  98– 93. This is a major achievement for the Arrows Club whose bid for Conference status them was turned down last season, despite them winning a League & Play Off Championship. "They were better than us," said Mohawks guard Jason Swaine. "We just didn't play as we can." The Arrows began brightly in an evenly contested opening quarter. Bevington, Young and Gayle were all prominent in the early action but it was Teesside's Lijah Perkins with 14 points who helped the visiting Mohawks take a 30 – 25 advantage. The Arrows maintained the pressure in the second quarter as Hackett, Waite & Richards all found their scoring touch, while for Teeside their highly acclaimed American duo of Bucci and Harrison carried the scoring in an evenly contested quarter. It took a buzzer beating “3 pointer” from Arrows star Danny Richards to send the Arrows to the interval trailing by 55 – 53. The third quarter continued to follow the earlier trend Bucci, Harrison and Swaine edged Teeside ahead at 79 – 69, however the Arrows refused to lie down and baskets from Waite, Richards & Gayle saw the quarter close with the Arrows trailing by a mere 5 points at 81 – 76. Danny Richards opened the fourth quarter with consecutive “3 pointers”, sending the Arrows in front of a now deafening Queens Park crowd on a decisive 20 – 6 tear that saw them lead remarkably 96 – 87 with 2 minutes to go. The final moments were tense as Teeside tried to claw back the gap but the inspired Arrows would not be denied and it was left to David Waite to ice the game from the foul line, securing a shock victory. This victory means the Arrows have the opportunity of qualifying for the second phase of the competition if they can defeat the Ware Rebels this Sunday the 3rd Nov at Queens Park Sports Centre, when the preliminaries get underway at 6.30pm with the start at 7pm. Hackney 88  Black Country 60 Hackney White Heat reached the quarter finals of the National Trophy with a convincing 88-60 victory over the Black Country Bears at the Space Centre on  Saturday.  And to make the win all the sweeter, they unearthed yet another player from the conveyor belt of outstanding young English talent that coaches Joe White and Richard Fergus continue to produce. This time it was 15 year old Paul Guede who caught everyone's eye with a performance of stunning maturity for one so young.  He utilised his all round  court vision to be his sides second highest scorer with 17 points as the East Londoners secured second place in their pool. With Perry Lawson opening proceedings with consecutive 3-pointers, Hackney were never headed and a 22-10 first quarter lead all but settled matters.  The Midland side, with a number of very experienced players struggled to make inroads, although former Birmingham Bullet, Tony Simms produced moments of  good skills.  But four 3-pointers in the second quarter from the home side gave them a convincing 54-28 half time advantage. Not unnaturally the White Heat, who were missing top marksman Franck Batimba through injury, relaxed slightly in the third stanza, but edged the period by  1 to maintain their advantage.  The final quarter saw Lawson and Hackney captain Grant Ebanja score with regularity as the home side closed out comfortable winners. Lawson led all scorers with 19 followed by Guede on 17 and Ebanja 16.  For the Bears Simms had 17 with Blake on 14 and Richards 12. Hackney's reward for qualifying is the short trip to last year's triple title holders Teesside Mohawks, who recently defeated BBL side Leicester.  However  the team will be in good heart after a promising start to the season. Next Saturday Hackney open their Conference League program when Plymouth Raiders are the visitors.   Solent 88 NW London 101 As coach for the night, Steve Fitzsimons said, "We played well for 30 minutes."   Indeed, Solent Stars had led for the first three quarters of the game and it was a disastrous last quarter that saw their efforts fall apart. With four of the first five players all contributing points at the start of the game, Solent built up a healthy 21 - 10 lead by the sixth minute.  By then Alan McDonald and David Butterworth had both hit three pointers and John Neale and Adam Willis gave useful scoring support.   NW London came back to just one point difference in the last minute of the quarter before Butterworth - who scored 20 first half points - hit consecutive three pointers to help Solent lead 29 - 22 at the first interval. Mark Jackson finally got on the scoresheet in the eighth minute of the second quarter to pass his 100 points for the season by which time NW London still trailed by eight points.  Then two quick three point strikes by Malik Jivens brought the visitors to within two points at the half time interval (51 - 49). Solent played confidently in the third quarter with Jackson and Adam Willis combining well to put points on the board.  By the sixth minute Solent led 68 - 58 and despite gifting NW London four quick free throws managed to cling onto their lead with newcomer Dominique Jones weighing in with seven points at this stage.  It all went horribly wrong in the final quarter as Solent threw away the chance of a first win of the season.  Jackson had little help once Alan McDonald was forced out of the game with a migraine and he was guilty of several losses of possession.  With Trevor Donaldson having a nightmare shooting performance, after his success last week at Worthing, and Jones fouling out with four minutes to play, coach Fitzsimons was left tearing his hair out as Solent lamely conceded superiority and ran out of ideas themselves.  Only twelve points were added to their total in the final quarter whilst NW London ran in 29 to prove comfortable winners.    Worthing Thunder 85 London United 83  London United travelled to Worthing Thunder on Saturday evening to try to avenge the recent 2 point home defeat at the hands of the Conference team.  However the Londoners failed to get the 3 point win they needed to reach the quarter final stages of the competition, losing 85-83 to the south coast side. London also had playing staff problems with injuries to Steve Vear and Sammy Rahman and Tayo Odulaja and Ian Burrell being unavailable meant that the roster was filled with under 18 and under 20 players with only seven usual senior squad players. The game plan was not to go behind to the Conference team early on and to pay special attention to the inside threat of Gaylon Moore and American guard Levoris Gerry.  The game immediately took shape and it looked as if the scoring was going to stay close throughout with London’s Walid Mumuni taking his man to the basket on numerous occasions and Gary Maitland shooting and penetrating easily. However at the other end Gaylon Moore cleverly found Damien Harris open underneath the basket whilst he was being closely guarded. Peter Deppisch seemed to take time warming his usual jump shot up after hitting the first three of the game he was denied the ball. With London’s Gary Maitland now showing the US Scholarship College pedigree that the coaches thought he had, he once again took the game to Worthing scoring freely throughout and playing solid defence trying hard to force turnovers through his quick feet. By the half the game was close at 44-43 in favour of Worthing after Jerry hit a buzzer beater 3 pointer. The second half seemed much the same as the first with both teams going at it and trading points throughout. Pete Deppisch suddenly got the space he needed in the third quarter when Worthing switched to zone defence and he nailed 3 deep three’s to give London a five point lead. That lead was fairly quickly eroded after Marvin Addy stepped up his game to equal scores again. In the last quarter the game looked like it was going to the wire and London lost Pete Deppisch through foul trouble with 1 and a half minute remaining. Marvin Addy was the Worthing player to step up with focused shooting and penetration through the London defence. London had team fouls which put Worthing on the foul line and the referee managed to mistake Gaylon Moore for Marvin Addy and put the more consistent Moore on the line to shoot two crucial shots which he made. London had to foul in a full court press with only seconds to go to put Worthing back on the foul line to hope they would miss. That tactic worked and London cut the lead to even the game up with 17 second remaining. London guard Tom Hull uncharacteristically gave the ball away as Gaylon Moore scored another crucial basket however with two seconds remaining Donal Hockey still managed to catch and shoot from a full court pass a last gasp effort which rimmed out, giving the win to Worthing. This left London dumped out of the Trophy with Sutton and Worthing going through to the last stages of the competition. “The changing room was very down after the game, and our players worked so hard to get the necessary win, just coming up short. Jack and me can’t fault the guys for effort and we played well today against a team that is bound to do well in the conference league. We are confident that we can finish high up in Division One this season after proving that we can play with the big boys.” Said assistant Coach Dave Schiller. The United team take on Westminster in the last game of the Trophy with only pride to play for on Tuesday evening at Moberley sports centre, Kilburn Lane tip off at 7.30pm.   Manchester Magic 96   Hull Icebergs 50 There was a relaxed air about the Magic camp before this game, with their bench looking like a who’s who of young British basketball talent and the Icebergs looking as if some of the squad had missed the bus.  But the game did not start that way, with the lively Hull side  down by only 2 points after 7 minutes. It took a couple of smart moves by Callum Jones to wake his side up to their capabilities and the Magic closed the quarter 25-12 ahead. From then on, coach Jeff Jones could use the game as an extended practice match, giving all his players plenty of court time. Notable in this respect was young Alan Metcalfe, who played over half the game and led the team in rebounds, along with the highly experienced Pluto Vourliotis, back in the  squad and contributing in all areas. Wayne Mulgrave was prominent in the second quarter, with three 3 pointers and Alex Hodgson, revelling in his extended court time, had one of his best games for the club. Steven Gayle closed the half with a nice three pointer to put the Magic  50-26 ahead. In the second half, the Icebergs’ shortage of numbers really told on them and, despite trying hard to the bitter end, kept going  by their player-coach, long-time Manchester favourite Kevin Penny, they could not contain the exuberance of the Magic youngsters and ended the third quarter 72-32 in arrears. With both teams still showing signs of quality, the game then drifted to its inevitable conclusion and, as so often happens, it was Wayne Mulgrave who wrapped the game up for the Magic with two well-taken free throws with 12 seconds to go. In spite of this convincing win, it looks as if the Magic may make no more progress in this competition, because of results elsewhere, but Jeff Jones must be delighted by the way his team is moving with the Conference season starting next weekend.     Solent 82 Worthing 92 Worthing Thunder were quicker at the start of this final National Trophy Pool C match for Solent Stars at Fleming Park on Sunday afternoon.  They quickly dispossed Jon Neale, who was too slow to accept a pass, to open the scoring.  Solent's frustration at being 0 -5 down by the third minute showed when they had three team fouls before they opened their scoring.  Neither side was playing fluent basketball in the early stages with many errors being committed.  After trailing 6 - 12 in the fifth minute Solent began to find a rhythm and consecutive three pointers from Alan McDonald brought them level at 16 all only for David Butterworth to give the ball away and gift Worthing two more points.  With just a few seconds remaining Mark Jackson penetrated the Worthing defence to socre two points and also draw Worthing's only charged foul of the quarter.  The subsequent successful free throw meant that Solent were one point ahead at the end of the quarter (19 - 18). The second quarter was equally as error strewn as the first.  Worthing drew first blood with Gaylon Moore scoring five consecutive points before Solent came back into the game led by Mark Jackson who was having one of his best matches for Solent in recent times.   What could have been a comfortable half time lead for Solent after two Jackson three point shots was nullified when they conceded possession twice in the last minute of the half and went in only one point to the better  (43 - 42). Solent made a poor start for the third time in the game in a spell when Alan McDonald had a period of play he will want to forget as Worthing scored the first six points of the half.  Once again Solent were in team foul trouble early on and Worthing were able to make ten visits to the free throw line as they gradually gained the upper hand, leading 49 - 58 by the sixth minute.   Solent only scored one two point field goal in the quarter.  They were able to stay in the game by landing six successful three pointers (Dominique Jones 3, Trevor Donaldson 2 Mark Jackson) that kept them just four points adrift going into the last quarter. After opening the scoring in the final quarter, Solent then saw Worthing add eight more to their tally before hitting back with seven points of their own to trail 74 - 79 with four minutes remaining.  Worthing's Americans Moore and free scoring Lavoris Jerry then put Worthing in the driving seat by adding eight more points between them as Solent once again fell apart in the final quarter.  Solent were called for 26 fouls against a Worthing total of 14 and need to consider this since 16 of those fouls resulted in Worthing free throws and enabled the visitors to continually add to their score.   Westminster Warriors 69 London United 82  London United played their last game in the National Trophy on Tuesday evening against local rivals Westminster Warriors both teams knowing that they have been knocked out of the Trophy. This meant that the result was irrelevant other than the fact that pride was at stake. The rivalry between these two teams had been stoked up by London United beating Westminster at Uxbridge two weeks ago by 12 points. With London missing point guard Steve Vear, Tayo Odulaja and Sammy Rahman through injury the game started brightly for United with Pete Deppisch gunning 3 three pointers in succession within the first 1.45 minutes without reply. The London United team already looked in control with swift ball movement and the killer touch from distance. Then Gary Maitland stepped up scoring at will taking United into a comfortable first quarter lead of 32-22. Westminster hustled and managed to pull back that lead to within 3 points at half time with Henry-Fontaine doing the damage for Westminster. United then managed to take control again in the second half and although the lead remained at between 5 to 10 points they never really looked in danger of loosing the game. In the third quarter Gary Maitland who had already racked up 21 points took a jump shot and landed on one of the Westminster defenders badly spraining his ankle. This was a tragedy for the guard who had really come to form over the last few games and he will be out for a number of weeks until he has fully recovered.  London’s new signing Ian Burrell stepped in for the last few minutes of the last quarter and scored 6 quick points and took a great charging foul as well as showing his maturity on the court.  London ended the game 13 points victors with a bitter sweet feeling after losing Maitland to injury in an inconsequential game.   Kingston Wildcats 79 Reading Rockets 103  Reading Rockets totally overwhelmed Kingston with a powerful and professional performance to register their fifth win in a row. John Hodds was totally dominant around the basket and top scored with 32 points whilst Gardner and Cooper caused havoc in the Kingston defense. Coach Gary Johnson was suitably delighted "Although Kingston had a somewhat depleted team they are still dangerous and it would have been easy to slip up here particularly as we have already qualified for the National Trophy Quarter-Finals." Rockets dominated right from the tip off with Ted Smith and then Lloyd Gardner both scoring three pointers and a combination of some great passing and quick thinking on offense and sheer hard work on defense gave Rockets an early 17-10 advantage. Hodds, a master at finding space where there is none, used his superior technique around the basket to turn excellent possession into points and Smith, Cooper, Gardner and Kelly unlocked the shaky Kingston defense time and again. Kingston for their part stayed in the game but only due to some excellent three point shooting from their Player Coach and Captain Mark Poynton. Coach Johnson took his first time out with two minutes of the first quarter remaining and Rockets in control at 28-15. After an exchange of baskets the quarter finished with Rockets in total control at 32-18. The start of the second quarter was a scrappy affair and the home side were quickly on team fouls as they resorted some silly fouling. Rockets failed to take full advantage missing five of seven shots from the free throw line and Kingston continued to sink the three point shots to close the score to 44-33. However Rockets strength in depth showed through with new signings Lloyd Gardner and Paul Hearne giving Rockets new options and their positive contributions gave helped establish a 56-38 half time lead. A moment of humour just before the end of the quarter turned into a technical foul against Coach Johnson.  Rockets opened the third quarter refocused and after Cooper sank a massive three Hodds used some clever footwork under the basket to make two and then scored another five in brilliant fashion. With Rockets lead at 70-46 Coach Johnson brought on 18 year old Gavin Frecklington a product of the Rockets junior structure and he immediately made an impact with some impressive defensive play. Kingston were looking demoralised and tired as Hodds continued to run riot around their basket and they were relieved  when the quarter ended even though they were 83-58 behind. The fourth quarter was virtually all Rockets and the last minute summed up the whole game as York made a three and Cooper another to bring up the 100 points and seal a deserved victory. Cooper finished off the Rockets scoring with a superb drive to the basket for two and he made the extra point.           Click here to discuss this story

 

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