Loughborough & Solent Book National Cup Final Spots - NBL Round Up, Week 13 - Hoopsfix.com
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Loughborough & Solent Book National Cup Final Spots – NBL Round Up, Week 13

By on December 13, 2018
Alex Roberts, Loughborough

The NBL continued into Week 13, as both Loughborough and Solent booked their spaces in the 2019 Men’s National Cup Final.

Here’s a round up of that, plus all the other action:

National Cup

Loughborough Riders 90-89 Hemel Storm
Loughborough Riders booked their National Cup Final spot with a come-from-behind 90-89 win over defending champions Hemel Storm, thanks to a game winning lay up from Alex Roberts with 13 seconds remaining.

Trailing by 13 with 5:47 to play, Loughborough reeled off a 16-2 run to finish the game and steal victory.

“A tough win,” Loughborough Head Coach Mark Jarram commented.

“Hemel really took it to us early like we anticipated and made a lot of shots. We talked about being able to weather that and fortunately made our run at the right time. A very gutsy performance from the group to find a way to come back and get the victory in some serious adversity. A great learning lesson for the team!

“Again, a shared performance in production and really happy that the group get the opportunity to play in a final and chance at some silverware.”

Levi Noel’s potential game winner bounced off the rim as time expired, leaving Hemel stunned.

“I’m absolutely gutted,” said Hemel Coach Robert Youngblood. “I thought we executed the game plan to perfection until the last five minutes when we started to play individual ball rather than team ball.

“We attacked them all game and they couldn’t handle it until in the last five minutes we stopped doing what had given us the lead. In those last minutes we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win.

And the Coach admitted: “This loss will hurt for a while but we must pick ourselves up and move on, we have to start climbing up the League table and get ourselves in position to qualify for the Play-Offs.”

Niall Harris had 19 to lead Loughborough, with Reis Pinnock having 18 points and 13 rebounds, and Alex Roberts 9 assists to go with his 13 points including the game winner.

Blayne Freckleton led all scorers with 25 points and 5 assists, and Leome Francis had 24 points and 11 rebounds.

Box score.

Essex Leopards 70-81 Team Solent Kestrels
Team Solent Kestrels set up a National Cup Final match-up with Loughborough with a 70-81 victory over Essex Leopards on the road.

Kestrels would have a strong start to the fourth quarter with a 12-0 burst behind their bench play to extend a lead to 18 points, and managed to hold off Essex, who wouldn’t get closer than 7 the rest of the way.

Team Solent Kestrels were led by Travis Charles’ 25 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists, whilst Herm Senor II stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds and 6 steals and Elliot Dadds chipped in 14 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

Matt Guymon, TSK Head Coach was delighted as his team reached the Cup Final, commenting:

“It’s fantastic for the club to make the Cup Final for the second time in 3 years. Essex made life difficult for us today and we struggled at times to build a consistent rhythm offensively. We were able to show resilience throughout the game and I have to give credit to our bench who gave us an excellent spark to blow open the game in the fourth.”

Ultimately, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Essex to recover from 29 turnovers.

“Overall I am proud we got to a semi-final in our first season together, having said that once we got there I am gutted for us that we couldn’t get to the final” Leopards Head Coach Tom Baker commented.

“We showed we can go toe-to-toe with the best team in this division which gives me pride and excitement as to what we can achieve this year, however the result serves as harsh reminder that we must play our style for 40 minutes if we are to beat the best teams this league has to offer.”

Essex were led by Luke Mascall-Wright’s 21 points while Asante Sandiford was the only other player in double figures for the hosts with 14.

Box score.

NBL Division 1

Barking Abbey 76-80 Leicester Warriors
Leicester Warriors rode a 31-point, 14-rebound effort from new signing Raphell Thomas-Edwards to secure a 76-80 victory over Barking Abbey on the rode.

The young BA squad pushed Leicester all the way, but had dug themselves into a hole early, trailing by 17 at the half. They dominated the third and went on an 8-3 run in the final two minutes to make it interesting but were unable to get over the hump, as Raphell Thomas-Edwards converted his free throws down the stretch.

Jamal Lewis added 12 for Leicester, with Alex Wilson finishing with 12, as the Warriors picked up their second win of the season at 2-8 in 12th place.

Ade Adebayo had 18 points, 5 rebounds an 8 assists to lead BA, Chris Feeney had 16, whilst Jonathan Brown had 15, but BA fell to 3-8.

Box score.

Derby Trailblazers 72-83 Thames Valley Cavaliers
Thames Valley Cavaliers dominated the glass and clamped down defensively to defeat Derby Traiblazers 72-83.

Trailing by two heading into the fourth, Cavaliers opened on a 7-0 start, and held Derby scoreless over the final 2:50 of the game to pull out the win, which allowed them to jump Derby in the table to fourth place with a 6-3 record.

Thames Valley were led by Martelle McLemore with 28 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, while Elliott DeFreitas scored 22 points, as well as pulling in 18 rebounds, 9 of which were on the offensive end; Cavs had 24 offensive rebounds as they dominated the glass.

Malcolm Smith continued his tear, with 31 points and 10 rebounds, going 15-of-17 at the line, Kayne King had 12 points and 7 assists and Tre Wilford added 11 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 7 steals, but Derby fell to 6-4.

“It was a very physical encounter, which suited their style of play and while our guys fought hard to
win the rebounding battle, their size advantage meant it was tough going for us and ultimately we
gave up too many second chance points,” Derby Assistant Coach Paul Bowen said.

“The loss is obviously frustrating, but we showed real fighting spirit, cutting the lead to single
figures several times in the final quarter, but just couldn’t seem to get our noses in front.

“The key things to learn from that game are we have to find a way to do a better job on the glass
and also improve our perimeter shooting.”

Box score.

Nottingham McDonalds Hoods 71-76 Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets improved to 6-3 in fifth place in the table with a 71-76 road victory over Nottingham McDonalds Hoods.

An 11-0 run in the third quarter put Reading in control, having been trailing the majority of the game up until that point. Holding a double digit advantage in the fourth, Hoods’ Mayer – who had been scoreless – reeled off four consecutive three-pointers to tie the game at 65 and make it interesting down the stretch, before a Rockets 7-2 run to finish the game saw them seal the win.

“We will always take a road win and Nottingham made it very tough for us as expected,” Reading Head Coach Alan Keane commented.

“It was concerning down the stretch as starting point guard Adrian O’Sullivan went out with a neck injury. But yet again it was incredibly refreshing to see first year academy player David Chive step up. Credit to Nottingham who are a talented group and coached well.”

Reading got 19 points from Sydney Donaldson, 18 from Trae Pemberton and 14 from AJ Carr.

Nottingham were led by 21 points from Cole Welle, as he went 13-of-14 at the free throw line, and 19 from Delaney Powell.

Box score.

Manchester Magic 81-94 Worthing Thunder
Simon Fisher’s coaching debut with Manchester Magic would not be enough to turn around their fortunes, as they suffered an 81-94 loss at the hands of Worthing Thunder.

Following Aurimas Verbukas’ departure, Fisher was handed the role but faced one of the top teams in Division 1, who received a 34 point, 12 rebound, 4 assist effort from Alex Owumi.

Trailing by as many as 16, Manchester did make a fight back led by Josh Houghton and Loick Pouale, reducing the lead to four heading into the final period, but that was as close as they would get

Jorge Ebanks added 19 points, 11 rebounds and 16 assists, and Tom Ward 16 for Worthing, who improved to 9-2 in second place. Zaire Taylor was limited to 8 minutes having got injured against Loughborough.

Josh Houghton finished with 30 points on 6-of-9 shooting from three, Richard Bell had 18 points and 12 rebounds, whilst Andre Gayle and Pouale had 14 each, but Manchester fell to 1-9 at the bottom of the table.

Box score.

NBL Division 2

London Westside 73-101 Sussex Bears
Sussex Bears pulled away in the second quarter and never looked back on their way to a 73-101 rout of London Westside.

Cordaris Townes exploded for 39 points and 11 rebounds to lead Sussex, with Luke Moore having 18 and Dom Baker 16, as Sussex Bears improved to 3-4 in sixth place.

Levi Edwards led Westside with 23, whilst Stefan Campbell had 21 but Westside fell to 2-6, second from bottom.

Box score.

Greenwich Titans 90-108 Liverpool
Liverpool continued their unbeaten run with a comfortable 90-108 victory over Greenwich Titans on the road, as the top placed and bottom placed teams in D2 matched up.

Kaphel Ulett-Waul had 32 points to lead Liverpool, with Tyme Regent-Bascombe and Mark Rangeley adding 21 each.

Arturo Noha-Pascual had 23 points to lead Greenwich in defeat, with Ray Akpofure going 10-of-11 for his 21 points.

Liverpool improve to 9-0 at the top of NBL Division 2, Greenwich fell to 1-6 at the bottom.

Box score.

London Greenhouse Pioneers 89-60 East London All Stars
London Greenhouse Pioneers improved to 6-2 in third place with an 89-60 win over East London All Stars.

Khyle-Andres Diaz had 22 points to lead Greenhouse, who dominated the second and fourth periods, with Max Hufschlag adding 18 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists.

Jonathan James’ 18 points led East London, but they fell to 3-5, sitting in eighth in the table.

Box score.

Derbyshire Arrows 88-71 Myerscough College
Derbyshire Arrows took full advantage of a short-handed Myerscough side due to their Under-18 National cup semi-final with Haringey, taking an 88-71 win.

Arrows improved to 3-5 in seventh place, whilst Myerscough fell to 4-6 in fifth place.

Joseph Baugh had 22 points and 9 rebounds, Matt Wilson and George Brownell added 18 each, with Callum McKenzie having 12 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

21 points from David Walsh led Myerscough, with 18 points and 9 rebounds from Samuel Keita.

Box score.

NBL Division 3

Stoke on Trent Knights 85-86 Team Birmingham Elite
University of Chester 93-68 Charnwood College Riders
Team Derby Spartans 107-85 Derby Trailblazers II
Calderdale Explorers 81-84 WLV Albion
Team Sunderland 0-20 Sheffield Sabres
Barking Abbey 75-87 Swindon Shock
Team Solent Kestrels II 92-97 Essex Blades
Cardiff City 93-72 Oxford Brookes University
Sheffield Hallam Sharks 75-100 Birmingham Mets
London BC Medelynas 93-69 Bristol UWE Flyers II

NBL Division 4

City of Birmingham Rockets 80-94 Nottingham Trent Hoods
University of Nottingham 93-55 Mansfield Giants
Myerscough College II 66-81 Doncaster Danum Eagles
Canterbury Academy Crusaders 77-84 Southwark Pride
Anglia Ruskin University 120-61 Westminster Dragons
Chelmsford Lions 91-76 Richmond Knights
Huish Taunton Tigers 74-92 RCT Gladiators
Coventry Flames 81-75 Birmingham Mets II
Barrow Thorns 73-67 Stockport Falcons
Liverpool Stars 70-63 Kingston Panthers
Cheshire Wire 83-110 Newcastle Eagles U23
London United II 86-72 Canterbury Christ Church Saints
Hemel Storm II 81-80 London Thunder Lewisham (OT)

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