Around The EBL – Week 12

It was a very exciting weekend in the EBL with numerous high scoring individual performances and some big shock results up and down the country.

National Cup

It was big day for four teams this past Sunday as the Semi-Finals of the National Cup were played out between Essex, Reading, NASSA and Manchester.

31 points from Howard Crawford was not enough for the Essex Leopards as they were defeated by the Reading Rockets, who fell at this hurdle in last year’s competition.

With 5:42 left on the clock, the Leopards found themselves down twelve before a late comeback was started by Ishmael Fontaine. Solid late game play by the Rockets though, secured the victory and a place in the final of the competition.

They will be joined in the Final by Newham NASSA Neptunes who overcame their fellow promoted team the Manchester Magic with an 82-70 victory.

The Final will be played on January 26th at 3:30pm in Worcester.

National Shield

Three out of the four Quarter-Finals of the National Shield took place on Sunday.

The first to secure a final four spot was Oxford Brookes University as they inflicted an 82-77 defeat on Plymouth Marjon.

NULC Knights booked their place in the Semi-Finals with a shock win over D3 contenders the Stockport Falcons. NULC’s top three scorers (Dos Santos, Jones and Bradshaw) all had atleast 20 points and combined for 64 total points in the 83-62 upset.

Finally, Steven Gayle showed up as usual for the Rossendale Raptors with 35 personal points as a 100-83 win over the Milton Keynes Mustangs saw them advance to the next stage of the competition.

EBL Division 1

Leeds Carnegie cruised to a 78-55 victory against Team Northumbria on Friday.

Carnegie was in control of the game from the opening tip to the final buzzer. A rejuvenated Leeds team included Rowell Graham-Bell, Branimir Mikulic and Ilija Ivankovic all returning from injury.

On the back of an impressive performance on both ends of the floor Carnegie were able to open up a 14 point lead by the end of the first quarter. This increased further in the second period as Northumbria’s offense was stifled by a pumped up Leeds roster. By the half time break Carnegie had extended their lead out to an impressive 22 points.

Leeds took their foot off the gas in the second half as they rotated their entire bench into the game. They cruised through to the 78-55 win on the back of 22 points from Club Captain Jack Stannard supported by 12 points from the returning Branimir Mikulic. Northumbria’s scoring was led by Matthew Martin with an impressive 24 points.

The Bradford Dragons stormed to seven wins in a row on Saturday.

A challenging 81-64 home victory over NASSA sees the Dragons one win away from top spot.

London based Neptunes began the game one place behind Bradford in EBL Division 1, but top performances by American duo Chris McGrew and Dan Foley established the Dragons as the better side and theDragons went on a 20-9 run to go in at half time leading by eight.

The London side had a brief resurgence and a technical foul by Dragon’s power forward Vance Silcott gave the Neptunes some easy points. However Bradford remained strong and closed out the quarter leading by seven.

Newham again showed their quality in the fourth quarter as they pulled back to within one point. In spite of this the Dragons refused to falter as they went on a vital 10-2 run to secure the victory!

Top of the table Hemel Storm showed exactly why they’re there, with an impressive 95-87 victory over title contenders the Manchester Magic. Bode Adeluola led the scoring with 29 points to see Hemel take an 8-1 record as the Christmas break approaches.

American Alex Greven scored 30 points as the Tees Valley Mohawks picked up just their third win of the season with an 89-74 win over the Bristol Academy Flyers.

The Worthing Thunder find themselves joint bottom of Division 1 following a 78-82 defeat to the Westminster Warriors. Lekan Popoola led Westminster with 27 points in the win.

EBL Division 2

Huddersfield Heat remain the only unbeaten team in Division 2 following an 82-95 away win against the Worcester Wolves II.

The Heat stormed out to a very impressive start led by big man Orlando Camin who went on to shoot 6-9 from the 3 point line, while Salva Mendez has 9 steals on the night. At the half the Heat led 13-33.

In the second half the home side played better basketball, but Huddersfield remained strong to bring home the 82-95 win on the back of 32 points from Orlando Camin.

“We played some really good defence at times, but now we need to follow on with the things what need to be fixed, such as the concentration and intensity levels…,” said Huddersfield’s new Assistant Coach Jim Fry, after the game.

“We need to have people on board who really want to play for this club, and if we get that dynamic we are going to be tough to beat.”

Ipswich travelled 160 miles to Mansfield still in search of an away win the in the league. Mansfield, were coming off a big six point win at championship contenders Derby Trailblazers last week so it was set to be a very hotly contested game from both teams.

Ipswich handed a debut to 7’0 Zimbabwean Tendai Simbai, a player brought in by Coach Nick Drane to give the team cover at the centre position as well as a much needed presence both in the locker room and on the bench.

For Ipswich, Josh Johnson had it going, as did big Leigh Greenan, while for The Giants it was the combination of 6’10 Mark Woodhouse and American Charles Gamble that were doing damage for the home side. Ipswich held a tight 33-31 lead going into the half time break.

The fourth saw Ipswich use the giant Zimbabwean Tendai to great effect as the big man collected three rebounds and a blocked shot in a five minute spell in which Mansfield didn’t score in open play. Simbai’s contribution allowed the visitors to give short periods of rest to their big men.

Ipswich held out late on to secure the 70-76 win.

“We needed that. A road win, a close win and a game that needed all the guys to step up. Our role players were massive today – Colin and Aaron in particular, who sparked that big run in the third,” said Ipswich Coach Nick Drane.

There was a huge win elsewhere for the Derby Trailblazers who picked up the 69-104 win over London United on the back of 36 points from American big man Alex Dorr, while LSBU Brixton Topcats secured their place on top of D2 with an 88-54 win over the Killamarsh Derbyshire Arrows with Vytenis Petkus leading Brixton with 34 points.

EBL Division 3

Northern Conference

The Stockport Falcons appear to be playing their way out of title contention following yet another defeat to the Birmingham Mets. Despite a huge output of 38 points from Josh Houghton, The Falcons were narrowly defeated by the league leaders, 79-75.

It was a big weekend for the Sefton Stars as they picked up back to back away wins to shoot themselves into second place in the North, taking down two of the league toughest teams in the process.

On Saturday, the Stars defeated the Northants Thunder, 63-66, while on Sunday the result was a 55-75 win over the Birmingham A’s. Sefton now have an 8-2 record heading towards the Christmas break.

There were wins elsewhere for the Sheffield Saints over rivals Sheffield Sabres, 76-73, while the Derby Trailblazers II picked up the 55-60 away win against the Nottingham Hoods.

The Birmingham A’s defeated the Tees Valley Mohawks II on Saturday by 58-64.

Southern Conference

Karolis Stepanavicius put up a 33 point performance in Canary Wharf London Lituanica’s 68-116 thrashing of the London Phoenicians. That victory sends them into third position as they only remaining undefeated team in D3, with a 6-0 record.

29 points from Jose Hernandez wasn’t enough for the Oxford Hoops as they went down 87-70 to the Hackney White Heat, while the next day the Hoops again tasted defeat at the hands of the London Greenhouse Pioneers, who now occupy the top spot in the Conference with an 8-1 record.

There were wins elsewhere for the Solent Kestrels and Bracknell Cobras who defeated the Cardiff Met Archers and Team Solent respectively.

EBL Division 4

Northern Conference

The Mersey Tigers stretched their lead at the top of the Northern Conference to 3 games and a 9-0 record with a huge 107-56 win over the Newcastle Eagles II. Thompson and Hudson combined for 52 points in the win.

The Hull Wasps, without injured GB U20 John Stewart, struggled to beat statistically the worst team in the conference as they overcame the Gateshead Phoenix with a 67-70 victory on the back of 25 points from Jack Daley and now sit joint second in league standings.

The Kingston Panthers join them in second place after a 66-75 win over the Leeds Tigers, while Leeds Allerton High Carnegie defeated the Teeside Lions 85-60 for their first win of the season.

Midlands Conference

The NULC Knights had a weekend to remember as they made it through to the Semi-Finals of the National Shield aswell as picking up a huge victory in the league to go top with a 7-1 record. On the back of 56 combined points from Rushton and Jones they defeated the Loughborough Student Riders II by 97-41.

In the only other game in the conference, the Sporting Club Albion beat the Leicester Warriors II by 63-81 to go into third place with a 4-4 record.

South Eastern Conference

BC Medelynas London continued their impressive form with a huge 53-109 victory over the London Utd Harefield Academy II on the back of 30 points from Gintaras Varanauskas. Medelynas now have an 11-0 record in league play.

In the Southend Scorpions’ 84-93 win over the Medway Park Crusaders II, their two top scorers (Squires and Osemwigie) combined for 56 points to secure their fourth win of the season.

There were wins elsewhere for the Greenwich Titans and Brentwood Fire, while 34 points from Brown went unrewarded as the College of West Anglia Fury as they went down 89-84 to the Cambridge Cats.

51 combined points for Whitehouse and Russell secured the 111-42 win for the Medway Park Crusaders II for their second win of the season.

Midlands South East Conference

Oxford Brookes stretched their record to 10-1 by defeating the Hertfordshire Warriors with Chris Petzy scoring 30 points in the win.

The Milton Keynes Mustangs defeated bottom place Reading Rockets II 74-62 to go second, while Middlesex LTBC went into third place with a 59-67 win over the Southampton Uni Sharks.

There were wins elsewhere for the Bristol Storm and Bristol Academy Flyers II, while Andrew St John’s scored 26 points in the Cardiff Capitals 72-82 loss to the Swindon Shock.

Thoughts? Did you get to any games?