w/e 06/03/05 * “Lords” ambush the “Dakotas” * Cadet Men’s National League (Premier Division North) Solihull “Dakotas” 75 – 93 Northants ”Lords” The Northants “Lords” showed the Dr Jeckyl side of their Jeckyl and Hyde character with a well deserved victory over Solihull “Dakotas”. Heavily beaten by Sheffield “Sharks” the previous week the “Lords” bounced back to complete a treble over the West Midland side. Things didn’t look too bright for the “Lords” after the first quarter as they trailed 26-24 but then on the back of some outstanding defensive rebounding from Chris Caird and Josh Peart they were able to launch a number of successful fast breaks. The “Lords’ outscored their opponents 27-18 in the second period to take a 51-44 half time lead. Needing to maintain their momentum in the second half the “Lords” did just this as they cruised to their fifth league win of the season. In the 18 points victory Chris Caird and Josh Peart both scored 22 points while Kurtis McKenna and Mark Swann contributed 18 and 13 points respectively. This weekend the “Lords” play their last game of the season when they entertain City of Birmingham. * “Cyclones” too good for “Sparks” * Cadet Men’s Regional League (Midland Conference) Northants “Cyclones” 70- 57 Leicester “Sparks”The young “Cyclones” had already beaten the “Sparks’ on two occasions going into Saturday’s game but they were handicapped by the absence of the injured Matt Rawsthorne and Robin Jack plus the presence of a new player in the “Sparks line up. The first half was a close run thing with the “Cyclones” holding a narrow 31-28 advantage. All but one of Leicester’s points had come from two players so Coach, Tony Stewart was anxious to stop this in the second half. He wasn’t helped by the fact that key players were picking up fouls but his team went on a 14-3 run to open up a 14 points lead at 45-31 midway through the period. As tiredness set in Stewart was forced to rest key players and Leicester stormed back as the “Cyclones” scoring dried up. They managed just a further two points in the quarter as Leicester closed to 49-43 going in to the final quarter. By this time though, Leicester were also very tired and that was the telling factor in the last ten minutes of play. The “Cyclones” were able to take control of the game and proceeded to extend their lead and eventually winning by 13 points on 70-57 the game ending with an alley-oop from Paul Barton to the delight of a large N.S.B. crowd. For the “Cyclones”, Tom Care was once again in superb form scoring 29 points while Robert Pearson enjoyed his best game of the season with an 11 points haul. The “Cyclones” close their season this Sunday when they are due to travel to Cambridge “Cats” w/e 20/02/05 Looking to make amends on last weeks defeat against Cardiff, Tamar Valley Cannons hosted in form Solent Stars, who had not lost since 11 December. Starting well the Cannons took advantage of the slow defence from Solent, and quickly opened up a 12 - 4 lead. Turnovers allowed Solent to match the Cannons for the rest of the quarter, with Tamar Valley holding a 19 - 11 first period lead. A very scrappy second period saw Solent apply full court pressure, pulling the game back to within one point before a slender 29 - 26 Cannons lead at half time. An aggressive 28 - 22 third period scoreline, thanks to five threes (Lemin 3, Porter 2) gave the Cannons a 57 - 48 lead taking it into the final period. Solent once again ran their full court press, only for the Cannons to beat it this time and create the simple chances. Solent playing aggressively caused fouls sending Cannons to the line for ten free throws in the final three minutes to put the game beyond Solent with a 78 - 69 win. Coach Paul Smith said, "We were comfortable but struggled at first when they put on the press. We held our nerves in the second half and beat them easily. "Straight from the tip we went into the lead, and we didn't allow them back into the game. We came out firing in the third and I think this stunned Solent, but they were determined to fight, and this produced a good game." Tamar Valley Cannons scorers: Lemin 26, Andrews 11, Cowperthwaite 11, Buse 10, Riley 10, Porter 8, Potter 2, Gibbons DNS, Shillingford DNS, Tombs DNS. Solent Stars scorers: Polonski 26, Abdul Rehman 21, Pomeroy 8, Gilbert 5, Gray 4, Hunn 4, Sneddon 1, Hatchett DNS. w/e 13/02/05 In a game that looks to have settled the final play-off spot, Tamar Valley Cannons Under 16's put up a good performance at Cardiff Clippers. Starting well, the team hit three three-pointers, opening a 11 - 8 lead before exchanging basket for basket with Cardiff, taking the first quarter 23 - 20. Hitting a couple a threes in the second quarter gave them a 29 - 25 lead before a 18 - 9 Cardiff run gave them the edge at half time, 38 - 43.
The second half started well with the score being
tied at 47 - 47 after just a couple of minutes, before the Cannons edged in
front at 62 - 60 Coach Paul Smith said, "The players were devastated after this game. I think they knew what the game meant, and when it came down to the end, and they looked at the score line, they were disappointed. "The game was not an eight point game. The lead changed eight times and we were level with them eight times which showed how close the game was. The players gave me everything, we didn't play bad, it was just our shots were not dropping at key times." * “Lords” come up just short against Ellesmere Port * Cadet Men’s National League (Premier Division North) Northants ”Lords” 75 – 77 Ellesmere Port “Panthers” The Northants “Lords” under stand in coach; Steven Archer showed just how much improvement they made in recent weeks losing by just two points to a hard nosed Ellesmere Port team. The “Lords” trailed the “Panthers” until midway through the third period but were still in contention at 46-42. They were able to raise their defensive efforts to such an extent that they held the Cheshire side scoreless for four minutes and eased ahead 60-57 going into the final period of play. The third quarter effort proved to be just too much for the county boys as their defensive effort slipped in the final ten minutes of play. The “Panthers” were able to lift the temp of the game and despite a Kurtis McKenna three –pointer in the final stages of the game they were able to hold out for the two-point victory. For the “Lords”, McKenna scored 28 points and he got good support from Tom Hiney and Chris Caird who scored 16 and 14 points respectively. The “Lords” are in action again this weekend when they entertain top of the table Manchester.
* West Herts too good for “Cyclones” * Cadet Men’s Regional League (Central Conference) West Herts “Warriors” 90 – 65 Northants “Cyclones”The “Cyclones” went into this match in optimistic mood having run the “Warriors” close on two occasions this season. The 35 points defeat was extremely disappointing for coach, Tony Stewart with only Tom Care with 27 and Alexander Stewart with 17 scoring in double figures. The “Cyclones” got off to the worst possible start trailing 7-zero after just three minutes but they recovered to lead 15-13 before succumbing to another 7-zero “Warriors” run to trial 20-17 after the first quarter. The “Cyclones” were handicapped in the second period when the influential Simon New picked up his third foul and had to be substituted. West Herts took the quarter 30-19 with a series of fast breaks to establish a 50-36 half time lead and there was no way back for the “Cyclones”. They dropped further behind in the third period but showed their determination by winning the fourth quarter 18-16. w/e 30/01/05 * “Lords’ go down against Trafford” * (Premier Division North) Trafford 117 – 90 Northants “Lords” The Northants “Lords” scored an impressive 90 points in an up tempo game against Trafford but were unable to contain the northerners at the defensive end conceding a massive 117 points. No less then five Northants players scored in double figures but the rest of the team contributed just six points and that made all the difference. Top scorer for the “Lords” was Chris Caird with 22 points, Elliott Toone contributed 20 and those two were well supported by Josh Peart with 17, Kurtis McKenna with 15 and Tom Hiney with 10. The “Lords” stay in 5th place in the Premier Division North and are without a game this weekend w/e 23/01/05 After an encouraging 107 - 70 win against UWIC Steelers at home last week, Tamar Valley Cannons under 16's looked to continue their fine form on the road at YMCA Torbay Tigers. Failing to take advantages of early easy shots, Cannons did not hit their first field goal until the fourth minute of play, by which time, Torbay had opened up a 8 - 3 lead. Weak defence allowed Torbay to stretch the lead to 16 - 5 before taking the quarter 22 - 9. Still failing to find their shooting range Torbay opened the second period scoring and took the game to 26 - 9 before a 26 - 8 run for the Cannons, including three three-pointers from Sean Porter, gave the Cannons a 35 - 34 lead.
A scruffy third period saw the lead exchanged five
times before a 21 - 8 run from the Cannons had opened up a 60 - 50 lead. Both
teams added a
A 13 - 4 run opened the quarter for the Cannons
giving them a 79 - 58 lead with four minutes to play. Looking comfortable,
Cannons introduced the Cannons coach Paul Smith said, "We started very bad. It took us 12 minutes to realise we weren't going to win this easily. We came into the game confidently, and hoped to have another easy win, but we tried to hard and made simple mistakes." "If we took away Torbay's opening run of 26 - 9 and their closing run of 21 - 4, we outscored them 70 - 32 which shows our capability. Despite it being only a four point win, we were comfortable and I was able to see how the bench could do against the press. As soon as we went up by 21, Torbay could not come back." Tamar Valley Cannons scorers were: Ryan Buse 22, Sean Porter 17, Marc Cowperthwaite 13, Josh Lemin 13, Chris Riley 11, Harrison Andrews 5, Luke Gibbons 2, Pete Tombs DNS. * “Lords” almost snatch defeat from the jaws of victory * Cadet Men’s National League (Premier Division North) Northants “Lords 65 – 63 Solihull “Dakotas” Twenty-two points up with just one period left to play the Northants “Lords” did their very best to lose this Cadet Premier Division North game. Their slump came in the face of a Solihull revival but was compounded by complacency, poor shot selection and appalling defence which took the gloss off a good team performance in the first three periods of the game. After the first quarter the “Lords” led 17-16 but then they shocked their opponents with aggressive defence and fast breaking basketball. In the next two periods they outscored the “Dakotas” 42-21 and to all intents and purposes it was game over. Then came the slump that threatened to take victory from the “Lords”. They were outscored 26-6 and heard the final buzzer with massive relief. For the “Lords” Kurt McKenna scored 18 points but Elliott Toone with 12 was the only other Northants player to get into double figures. This weekend the “Lords” travel to second placed Trafford.
* “Cyclones” downed by “Cannons” again * Cadet Men’s Regional League (Central Conference) Leicester “Cannons” 80 – 44 Northants “Cyclones”The format of the Regional League sees teams play each other three times. This was the fourth meeting between these two teams as they were also drawn against each other in the National Cup. “Cannons” now have the measure of the “Cyclones” who were unable to get over the psychological barrier of three previous defeats. After a good start “Cannons” hit the county boys with an aggressive pressure defence forcing numerous turn-overs leading to easy scores. With the exception of Tom Care who scored 15 points the “Cyclones” had no answer to the Leicester pressure as the home side cruised to an easy win.
|
|