Bradford Dragons
  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Mission Statement
    • Club Honours
    • Dragons Personnel
    • Policies
    • Vacancies
  • News
    • News
    • Dragons in the News
  • Senior Men
    • Dragons 1 Fixtures 2020
    • Roster 2020
  • Academy
    • Academy Information
    • Academy Gallery
  • Juniors
    • Under 18s >
      • Under 18s Information
      • Under 18 Fixtures
      • Under 18s League Table
    • Under 16s >
      • Under 16s Information
      • Under 16 Fixtures
      • Under 16s League Table
    • Under 14s >
      • Under 14s Information
      • Under 14 Fixtures
      • Under 14s League Table
    • Under 12s/Beginners
  • Dragons 3
    • Dragons 3 Fixtures 2019
    • Information
  • Schools
    • Information
    • Sponsored Events
  • Shop
  • Tickets
  • Support Us
  • Contact

DRAGONS ROCKET TO DEFEAT IN LEAGUE OPENER!!

3/11/2014

 
Picture
Bradford Dragons failed to get their National League Division One season off to a winning start, going down 58-72 against last season’s triple champions Reading Rockets.

The Dragons were missing Jermayne Laing, due to a long standing personal commitment, whilst head coach, Chris Mellor is also still awaiting the arrival of his two American imports, Chris McGrew and Jeremee ‘JP’ Davies. However, Reading were also missing the services of their influential captain, Dan Carter due to injury and had so far experienced a mixed start to their 2014/15 schedule.  

Reading ‘Rocketed’ into an early six point, unanswered lead at the start of the first period and although Mellor’s men had plenty of opportunities to level things up, they just couldn’t get the baskets to drop. With both teams making mistakes aplenty, the first quarter remained fairly low scoring, with Bradford trailing at the interval by four, with the score at 9-13.

The second quarter saw the visitors extend their lead to nine points. However, the Dragons started to piece a few good plays together and pulled the game back to within three points, going into the half-time break at 30-33.

The break gave the home crowd something to celebrate, as the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress presided over a special medal presentation to the Yorkshire under 15 boys’ squad, in recognition of their recent victory in Basketball England’s Regional Development Tournament. The under 15’s squad included four Bradford Dragons junior players, as well as being coached by Mellor’s assistant, Samuel Messam.

As play resumed, Reading again stretched their lead, this time to ten points, before Bradford finally seemed to find their game. Putting in a huge effort, the home side took the lead for the first time in the game, before closing out the penultimate period with the scores tied at 46 apiece.

However, any optimism that had been created by the Dragons resurgence was quickly extinguished as Reading totally dominated the final phase of the game.  Not even a lengthy time-out, caused by a shot clock malfunction, would allow the Dragons to regroup and the game ended with a disappointing 58-72 defeat.

After the game, Mellor said, “It wasn’t a good performance from us. We turned the ball over way too much, made some bad decisions in transition offence and got out-rebounded. We were level at the start of the fourth, and looking to push on for the win, but they executed better and were the better team on the night.”

Club Captain, Vance Silcott led the scoring for the Dragons with 16 points, whilst also taking 11 rebounds to record another double-double. Veteran shooting guard, Jason Swaine finished the game on 15 points, which included four of his trademark three pointers, whilst Spanish centre, Miguel Lorenzo added 12 points to his tally for the season.

Ex-England International, Swaine commented, “The game was a good indication of where we are as a team. We are progressing well and playing for each other, but all credit to Reading. They are a well-coached and highly talented team who took advantage during crucial parts of the game. We will now move on and focus on next weekend’s games.”

For the Rockets, both Alexander Zurn and Marti Sergio Guardia ended the game on 16 points apiece, whilst Deion Turman recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The Dragons Den (Bradford College Sports Hall, Trinity Road, BD6 0JE) plays host to Team Northumbria next Saturday (8th November), with tip-off at 6:15pm.  Team Northumbria have already beaten Bradford during the round-robin phase of this seasons National Trophy competition and therefore the Dragons will be looking to set the records straight this time around.

Click Here to view more photos from the game

All photographs © ALEX DANIEL PHOTOGRAPHY
Picture
Yorkshire under 15’s (from left to right): Samuel Messam (head coach), Jayden Martin (Bradford Dragons), Callum O’Dowd (Bradford Dragons), Zion Tordoff (Bradford Dragons), The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Bradford, Eisley Swaine (Bradford Dragons), Micah Richards (Leeds Force), Jaka Pandza (Leeds Force), Matthew Cowley (Leeds Force), Nathaniel Montgomery (Sheffield Sharks).
Click the above images to enlarge

Comments are closed.
    Picture
    Picture
    Tweets by @bballengland

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The name Bradford Dragons and the Bradford Dragons logo is the exclusive property of Bradford Dragons Basketball Club Ltd.
​All Rights Reserved. © 2017. All other names and logos remain the property of their respective owners.