Bradford Dragons faced Leicester Warriors in the Midlands on Saturday afternoon and travelled back to Bradford with the points, following an 88-98 hard fought victory.
Leicester have not had the best of starts to their season, having not won since an opening day victory against Manchester Magic, at the beginning of October.
The Dragons themselves had been dealt a blow in the week leading up to the game, with the news that American point-guard, Drexler Clark, had flown home, for personal reasons, and would not be returning to the club. A statement issued by the club last Wednesday read, “Everybody at the club wishes Drexler all of the very best for the future and thank him for his dedication to the Dragons during his short time with us.”
Andreas Lycoudis opened the scoring at the Gateway College, sinking an early three-pointer for the Dragons. However, Leicester responded with a two from Joshua Pollock and then a flawless set of free throws by Pakadashe Chingombe put the hosts ahead.
The home side’s lead was short lived however, as the Dragons launched a seventeen-point unanswered streak, putting them firmly in control of proceedings. When the first quarter ended, Bradford were on the right side of a 13-30 score-line.
Layups from Ricky Fetske and Rihards Šulcs further extended the Dragons lead, at the start of the second period. However, Leicester slowly, but surely, started to claw their way back into contention. With less than a minute of the half remaining the gap was back into single figures. Warriors coach, Karl Brown, would certainly have been the happier of the two coaches, going into the mid-game interval, despite the Dragons holding on to their lead (40-49).
Bradford restored a double figure at the onset of the second half, when Jermayne Laing was fouled by Leicester’s Martyn Gayle, and made no mistake with the resultant throws from the line. Sulcs followed up with a layup and, although the Warriors responded, they couldn’t stop the Dragons building back an 18-point advantage (44-62) in the first four minutes of the third.
But, four minutes later, the hosts were back within four points (66-70)
and could sniff the possibility of a second victory.
But Leicester couldn’t add to their total in the final two minutes of the penultimate quarter, whilst three each from Lycoudis and Rafi Saipe was enough to send the Dragons in the final ten with slightly more breathing space (66-76).
In that final period the Dragons did just enough to hold the Warriors at arms-length and, despite it not being the most convincing of Bradford’s displays, they took the win, 88-98.
Leicester have not had the best of starts to their season, having not won since an opening day victory against Manchester Magic, at the beginning of October.
The Dragons themselves had been dealt a blow in the week leading up to the game, with the news that American point-guard, Drexler Clark, had flown home, for personal reasons, and would not be returning to the club. A statement issued by the club last Wednesday read, “Everybody at the club wishes Drexler all of the very best for the future and thank him for his dedication to the Dragons during his short time with us.”
Andreas Lycoudis opened the scoring at the Gateway College, sinking an early three-pointer for the Dragons. However, Leicester responded with a two from Joshua Pollock and then a flawless set of free throws by Pakadashe Chingombe put the hosts ahead.
The home side’s lead was short lived however, as the Dragons launched a seventeen-point unanswered streak, putting them firmly in control of proceedings. When the first quarter ended, Bradford were on the right side of a 13-30 score-line.
Layups from Ricky Fetske and Rihards Šulcs further extended the Dragons lead, at the start of the second period. However, Leicester slowly, but surely, started to claw their way back into contention. With less than a minute of the half remaining the gap was back into single figures. Warriors coach, Karl Brown, would certainly have been the happier of the two coaches, going into the mid-game interval, despite the Dragons holding on to their lead (40-49).
Bradford restored a double figure at the onset of the second half, when Jermayne Laing was fouled by Leicester’s Martyn Gayle, and made no mistake with the resultant throws from the line. Sulcs followed up with a layup and, although the Warriors responded, they couldn’t stop the Dragons building back an 18-point advantage (44-62) in the first four minutes of the third.
But, four minutes later, the hosts were back within four points (66-70)
and could sniff the possibility of a second victory.
But Leicester couldn’t add to their total in the final two minutes of the penultimate quarter, whilst three each from Lycoudis and Rafi Saipe was enough to send the Dragons in the final ten with slightly more breathing space (66-76).
In that final period the Dragons did just enough to hold the Warriors at arms-length and, despite it not being the most convincing of Bradford’s displays, they took the win, 88-98.
| Šulcs took the honours as the game’s high scorer, with a personal 28 points. However, it was Fetske that took the plaudits, sinking 25 points and taking a massive 18 rebounds, with a performance that earned him the National Basketball League’s Player of the Week award. Chris Mellor didn’t waste his words at the end of the game, simply stating, “We didn’t do a great job of guarding off the dribble or contesting the three, but we had enough offensively to keep finding scores when we needed to.” |  |
Following successive weekends on the road, the action returns to the Dragons’ Den this coming Saturday, when Team Newcastle University provide the opposition.
Newcastle lost their opening three games of the season but have since won three from their last four league fixtures. The Dragons will therefore need to be at the top of their game for this one. Tip-off in the Den is at 6:15pm and advance tickets can be purchased from the club website.
Photographs © Alex Daniel Photography
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