Bradford Dragons suffered another close defeat in the away National Trophy pool game against the 2010 EBL division 1 champions Derby Trailblazers by 82 – 88 points. With the game tied at 16 all at the first break, it was Derby who came out steaming in the second quarter to take a 45 – 32 lead at half time. As Dragons battled to close the gap to 4 in the third quarter, the first of 3 technical fouls by Dragon’s Michal Ciesla allowed Derby to take 5 points from the charity stripe. Dragons tied the third quarter to trail 55 – 68 at the final break as Tom Martin hit a triple for Dragons with 2 seconds on the clock. In the final quarter, with Dragons battling to narrow the gap, a triple from Edmunds late in the seventh minute brought it to a 7 point game. With 30 seconds on the clock a basket by Tom Martin made it a 4 point game as the Dragons defensive pressure brought rewards, but a technical foul by Dragons centre Chris McGrew saw the pressure on Derby ease with another 2 free throw points as Derby won the game 88 – 82 at the buzzer.
After the game Coach Chris Mellor said,’ We got what we deserved today, Derby executed way better than we did in the half court. We gave Gayle and Kakad too much room on the perimeter and overall our defence had too many individual breakdowns. Put that with 17 missed free throws and 4 technical fouls and it gonna make life difficult’.
For Dragons, Vance Silcott starred with a trademark double double of 30 points and 11 rebounds, Rihard Sulcs also made a double double with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Bobby Edmunds hit 11 points.
The following day, Dragons travelled to play EBL division 3 Sefton Stars in the second round of the National Cup and won 110 to 32. Up 25 to 13 at the first break, the Dragons defence locked Sefton down to only 4 points to lead 61 – 17 at half time. With the Dragons defence completely in control, Sefton were again restricted to 4 points in the next quarter as Dragons amassed an 82 – 21 lead at the final break and Dragons also took the final quarter to win 110 – 32 on the night. If Leeds Carnegie beat Warrington Wolves on Monday 10/10/11, the third round national cup clash will be Dragons v Carnegie in a mouth watering local derby game on Sunday 30th October at 4.15pm at Bradford College.
After the game Coach Chris Mellor said, ‘We played consistently over the four quarters, our concentration was good and we kept the defensive intensity high. Sefton played a very young team but they didn’t quit and played right till the end which is always good to see with young players’.
Elsewhere for Dragons, Dragon 2 lost the local EBL division 4 derby game against neighbours Bradford Maroons by 63 – 55, despite leading 36 – 30 at half time with Rob Donaldson on a game high 19, Dave Lawal hitting 10 and Craig Wilson on 8 points. Dragons 3 lost away 37 to 70 at Halifax Hawks in their Leeds league division 1 opening game, Dragons U18 lost away 39 to 55 at Derbyshire Arrows on their EBL U18 north east conference opening game and Dragons U14 also lost their opening EBL U14 game 42 – 106 at Derbyshire Arrows. However, Dragons U16 made it two wins from two in their EBL North East Conference game at home by 73 – 55 against Chester Jets 2.
