The Northants Thunder senior men’s team stormed into the VCARS Division Four Final Fours with a resounding 102-73 win over Stockport Spartans at a packed Basketball Centre on Saturday.
Stockport arrived in Northampton with former England international Jason Swaine plus a number of experienced national league players in their ranks, who on paper seemed like they would be able to cope with Thunder’s up-tempo style of play.
In reality they didn’t cope as Thunder combined aggressive full court man-to-man defence with some swift counter -attacking breaks led by Jonny Yates and the home team rushed into a 34-19 lead after the first period of play.
Spartans hit back to win the second quarter and make the half-time score 48-40, but Thunder recovered their composure to win the second half and claim the win.
Thunder now have a place in the Final Fours in Leeds this weekend.
Their opponents in the semi-final will be Bracknell Cobras, who went through the regular season undefeated in the South-West Conference and saw off NASSA in the quarter finals.
The winner of that tie will face Tees Valley Mohawks II, who beat Barking Abbey 87-86 last Saturday.
In the win over Spartans, 10 players contributed to the scoring, led by Leon Henry with 25 points.
Jonny Yates contributed 17 while Jason Tucker combined his defensive duties with a 12-point haul.
Northants Lightning 70
Bromsgrove Bears 29
The Northants under-15 girls secured a home draw and Conference runners-up spot with a comprehensive win over Bromsgrove Bears.
The original fixture was snowed off and the club is grateful to the Bromsgrove outfit for agreeing to travel midweek because if the game had been declared void the Northants team might well have faced an away draw in the play-offs.
Lightning led 35-4 at half-time, and eased to a comfortable win despite losing the final quarter by a point.
Nine Lightning players contributed to the scoring, led by Lauren Milne who scored 16 points and also pulled down a massive 17 rebounds.
Ruhcae Walton managed nine rebounds to go with her 14 points.
Charlotte Berridge and Caitlin Stewart also made important contributions while Sarah Round was her usual confident self in the back court.
Southend Swifts 69
Northants Lightning 50
Lightning were well beaten in this East of England Under 13 Girls League clash.
On the face of it this looked a reasonably close game, but in fairness the Swifts coach Stephen Pearl was particularly magnanimous in using his better players sparingly and also taking off his team’s aggressive full court press.
Had the home side continued with their pressure defence and played only their more experienced players, Lightning would have been on the wrong end of a cricket score.
After their journey to the seaside, Lightning were blitzed 22-2 in the first quarter by a very good Swifts outfit.
On a number of occasions the Northants girls were able to break through the Southend defence only to miss lay ups but as the pressure was relaxed they were able to become more competitive in the second quarter, which they lost 19-12 to trail 41-14 at half-time.
The Southend girls won the third period of play 20-16, but against some of the younger Swifts players Lightning actually took the fourth quarter 16-12 to give the final scoreline a more , but slightly unrealistic, look at 69-50.
For Lightning, Holly Winterburn top-scored with 16 points while Odetta Bajorunaite, Behira Barakat and Ellie Solomon all contributed eight points.
FIXTURES: Saturday: 11.30am: Under 13 Girls v Southend Swifts, Under 14 Girls v Ipswich Bobcats. 1.30pm: Junior Women v Southend Swifts. Sunday: 12pm: Under 15 Girls v Trafford, Under 16 Girls v Cheshire Panthers
All these games will be played at the Northants Basketball Centre at Northampton School for Girls in Spinney Hill Road, Northampton
The Senior Men travel to Leeds to play Bracknell Cobras in the semi-final of the VCARS Division 4 Final Four Tournament
TITANS BASKETBALL
Titans Under 14 team
NEBC Titans Under 14s are preparing for a crucial play-off game this weekend.
Titans won the Midlands League undefeated giving them a home draw in the playoffs, where they will take on Bradford Dragons on Sunday at Northampton Academy. Tip-off is at 1.15pm.
Titans Under-16 team
The first round of England Basketball under-16 play-offs is for teams in the Conference League. The winners are then matched against the top four Northern Premier and top four Southern Premier teams in the second round of play-offs.
NEBC Titans travel to York to play the Eagles on Sunday, tipping off at 3pm.
NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
Greig City Academy 42
Northampton School for Girls 63
Northampton School for Girls are celebrating after becoming national champions following their win in the final of the Dynamik Under-17 National Schools Final.
Both teams made a tentative start to the game with Greig City edging ahead but there was a growing confidence amongst the NSG girls and inspired by scores from Amy Boot and Charlotte Berridge they went on a 10-2 run to take a 16-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
This lead was extended to 22-12 thanks to a breakaway lay up and a long two from Steph Ogden.
The Greig City coach switched her team to a zone defence and this immediately caused the NSG girls problems. They were guilty of shooting from the perimeter too early in their offences allowing Greig to mount fast break attacks.
The Londoners went on a 10-0 run to tie up the scores at 22-22, but a free throw and a buzzer beating three-pointer from Sarah Round re-established the NSG lead at half-time.
Like Greig City, NSG had been employing a zone and this had allowed their opponents to rebound through the seams.
Coach Karen Goodrich took the decision to switch her team back to a man-to-man defence and the switch worked as NSG edged the third quarter 19-13.
The game plan for the final 10 minutes of play was very simple; play great defence and take care of the basketball. Goodrich’s players responded superbly with early scores coming from Ogden, Caitlin Stewart and Tara Hings.
On the other hand Greig City uncharacteristically went into panic mood, losing their composure and rushing shots with the rebounds being gobbled up by Lois Bain and Rio Blessyn. NSG closed the game with a 13-2 charge to take the title.
Ogden top-scored for NSG with 23 points and took the game’s most valuable player award.