Dragons Remain Unbeaten Following War of the Roses Clash

Bradford Dragons entertained Manchester Magic in the Dragons’ Den on Saturday evening, for the second time in less than a month. Once again, the White Rose came out on top as Bradford romped to a comfortable 87-55 victory over their rivals from the red side of the Pennines.

For the past five seasons, Magic have been a real thorn in the side of the Bradford team, with wins against them being few and far between. However, following the departure of long-term head coach, Paul Middleton, the Manchester side are in the midst of a major transition period and have struggled to make an impact in the early stages of the new campaign.
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In comparison, Bradford are enjoying their best ever start to a season, since joining the top flight of the National Basketball League in 2011, having won their opening six games, across all competitions. When theses sides last met, in September’s National Trophy fixture, the Dragons enjoyed a 94-71 victory, prompting Magic’s coach, Aurimas Verbukas, to promise stiffer competition the next time the two teams met.

Bradford’s Allie Fullah won the jump ball at the start of the game, tipping the ball forwards to Latvian Rihards Šulcs, who made an immediate assault on Manchester’s basket, but unfortunately couldn’t get his layup to drop. However, Fullah was on hand to pick up the rebound and opened the scoring with a two-point jump shot.

Magic levelled through Kayin Darbey but Šulcs made no mistake from his second layup attempt and when Drexler Clark sank from outside the arc, the Dragons were in possession of an early five-point lead.

There did appear to more resilience from the visitors, this time around, and throughout the opening period they managed to keep themselves in contention. Even when Bradford extended their lead into double figures, back they came and when the first buzzer sounded they had pulled the gap back to just six, with Dragons leading 27-21.

The second quarter brought a completely different story. Whilst the Dragons pushed on, in a similar manner to the opening session, there opposition struggled to break through the home defence, who restricted their guests to only five points in thaxt period. With the half time scores at 48-26, in Bradford’s favour, Verbukas had his work cut out to keep his teams heads up for the second half.

Following a slow start to the third, American big-man, Ricky Fetske bucketed a two to bring up the half century for the Dragons and the hosts continued to push on from there. Despite a late contribution from Manchester’s Richard Bell, they had no answer for Bradford’s dominance. The penultimate period ended with the home side thirty-two points clear, at 71-39.

​With the game all but won, Bradford were able to ease off the gas a little in the final quarter, although they still showed moments of brilliance, not least through some excellent three-point shooting from Rafi Saipe. And although honours were even in that final period, there was no doubt that, at this point in time, Bradford were by far the better of the two teams. The game ended Bradford Dragons 87, Manchester Magic 55.

Šulcs picked up the official University of Bradford Sport Player of the Game award, whilst topping the score charts for the third game in succession (24 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists). Fetske contributed a further 16 points, also taking 12 rebounds to notch up his, almost customary, double-double.

Top score for Manchester was shared between Saul May and club captain, Daniel Pilkington, both players contributing 10 points each.

Bradford coach, Chris Mellor reflected on the game, “We played well, especially at the defensive end. Our focus, concentration and effort was where it needs to be and we moved the ball well offensively, with contributions from everyone.”

Next Saturday (27th October) the Dragons travel to the Clarence Wiggins Sports Centre to face Derby Trailblazers, who, like Bradford, are unbeaten in the league and are sure to provide a stern test of the Dragon’s credentials. Tip off in Derby is at 7:15pm.

​The following day, Worthing Thunder visit the Dragons’ Den in the forth round of the National Cup, in what is sure to be a hotly contested game between two of the early season form teams. The game tips off at 4:15pm and advance tickets are available through the club website.

Dragons’ under 14s entertained Derbyshire Arrows at the Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College on Saturday. The youngest of the Dragons’ National League sides are improving every game, but still couldn’t do enough to stop Derbyshire taking home the win (53-81).

The following day the under 18s made the reverse journey to Derbyshire Arrows, looking to keep their unbeaten run alive. However, the game was abandoned when coach Bohdziewicz was ejected following a double Technical foul, thus handing Derbyshire a regulation 20-0 victory.

Photographs © Alex Daniel Photography