Bradford Dragons were unable to get a victory this weekend against either Leicester Warriors or the Medway Park Crusaders.
Dragons faced a strong Warriors side on Saturday as they look to continue their winning run. The Warriors set up their defensive wall early on, only letting Dragons score 8 points in the first quarter. This tough defense allowed them to open up a 10 point lead after just 10 minutes of play. Bradford managed to find more rhythm offensively in the second period but so did Leicester and the gap had opened up to 21 points by the half time break.
Dragons offensive difficulties came back in the third quarter as they were only able to score 4 baskets in the period, whilst the Warriors were able to extend their lead slightly to 23 points to take into the final ten minutes. Although Bradford put in an impressive final quarter notching up 26 points it wasn’t enough to take the win, as Leicester ended up 72-59 winners. Dragons scoring was led by Ricky Fetske with 31 points whilst the Warriors were led by Eugene Pettway with 16 points.
Less than 24 hours later Dragons were back on court in Kent against the Medway Park Crusaders. Once again Bradford got out to a slow start as Medway managed to pour in 30 points in the first quarter and open up a 17 point lead. Dragons continued to struggle on both ends of the floor in the second quarter whilst the Crusaders continued to apply pressure, extending their lead to 26 points by the half time break.
The game had been decided by the end of the third quarter as yet another impressive offensive display from Medway saw them put on another 20 points to their total whilst extending their lead to an insurmountable 34 points. Dragons however rallied in the final period but were only able to get the final gap down to 32 points. The Crusaders ran out 91-59 winners in the VCARS.CO.UK Division One game. Dragons scoring was led by Ricky Fetske with 15 points whilst the Crusaders were led by Mannock Lual with 20 points.
Bradford Dragons Head Coach Chris Mellor was disappointed with his team’s showing saying “We played two really bad games this weekend. We’ve got to start defending better as a team because offensively we just aren’t putting enough points on the board to win games right now”
Dragons will now travel to travel to Hemel to face the Storm next Saturday before returning to the Dragons Den to face Derby Trailblazers on Saturday 16th March, that game will tip off at 6:15pm at Bradford College.
Elsewhere for Bradford, Dragons Women got back to winning ways with a 46-65 win over Sefton Starlights. Dragons II weren’t able to close out the win against Tees Valley Mohawks II going down 70-66. The Under 18 Men secured a season high 111-27 win over local rivals Huddersfield New College. The Under 16 Boys couldn’t secure the win against Preston Pride losing 49-92. Whilst the Under 14 Boys continued their winning ways with a 51-74 away win over the Barnsley Leaders.