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Season over for Dragons as Reading Rocket to Play Off win

9/4/2018

The final buzzer sounded on Bradford Dragons season on Sunday, as the Reading Rockets overturned a third quarter deficit to record their tenth straight victory in a fiercely contested play-off quarter final fixture, 89-78, at the Rivermead Leisure Centre, in Reading.

The Rockets, who finished third in the final league table, three places above Bradford, had the home court advantage and with a big crowd behind them, it was always going to be a tough battle for the Dragons. However, both sides have been in excellent form in recent weeks and in these one-off, life or death fixtures anything can happen, as was demonstrated earlier in the day when seventh placed Hemel Storm overturned home court advantage at league runners up, Team Solent Kestrel

The home side put the first points on the board, taking a 5-0 lead through Jerrod Hendrix and Declan Soukup, before Jermayne Laing recorded the first points for the Dragons. In Laing scored the first seven points for the Dragons, before Ricky Fetske (sponsored by ALW Guitars) sank his only basket of the game to tie the scores at nine apiece.

Playoff Confirmation

2/4/2018

Details of Bradford Dragons' playoff quarter final have been confirmed. As suspected. the Dragons will face an away fixture, against third placed Reading Rockets. The game will take place at the Rivermead Leisure Centre, Reading on Sunday 8th April, with a 5pm tip-off.

Reading are unbeaten in their last nine fixtures and will go into the game as clear favourites. However, Chris Mellor's side have also hit form, at the business end of the season, and are currently on a five game winning streak of their own. Fixtures between the two sides have been split 50-50 during the regular season, with the Rockets taking the honours on their patch (95-74) but then Bradford taking the win in the Dragons' Den (82-67). It's all set to be a closely fought contest as the two sides battle for a place in the final fours.

Meanwhile, the Dragons' under 16s lost their final game of the season, a rearranged fixture at City of Leeds Gold. Despite putting up a strong fourth quarter, unfortunately it was not enough to stop the Leeds side from taking the victory, 76-71.

Top scorer for the Dragons was Great Osobor, who finished off a fantastic personal season with the club by bucketing an incredible 42 points.

Another of Dragons' junior players, Olufemi Bright has recently been named in the initial England under 15s squad, with training camps to be held on 15 April and 20 May.