Northants Titans claimed the town bragging rights as they beat rivals Northants Thunder 8-58 in the EBL Under 14 Boys Midlands Conference clash at the Northants Baskteball Centre on Saturday morning.
It was an early start for the Titans as they travelled to Northampton School for Girls to take on Thunder.
With Keenan Salmon, Hayden Alcindor and Scott Moore away on East Midlands duty, it seemed the remaining Titans would need to work hard to make up for the gaps on the bench.
This proved to be exactly what happened as they settled down and found their rhythm.
The first six minutes saw Titans go on an impressive 18-2 run with Trei St Vie Hutchinson causing mayhem for a weak Thunder defence.
Thunder tried to fight back when Titans seemed to take their foot off the gas, but the first quarter ended 20-10 to Titans.
A team talk certainly got the Titans back on track in the second quarter, ensuring that Thunder, starved of chances ‘in the paint’, were only able to score three baskets during the whole 10 minutes.
At half time the score was 42-16 (Trei Hutchinson laying claim to 22 points).
The third and fourth quarters saw the Titans rotate their bench more fully allowing everyone to show what they could do, including three special guests from the under 13 squad.
All in all an excellent day’s work for the boys in purple ending the derby as 80-58 winners.
Hutchinson and ‘Bosh’ Farrar both fouled out in the fourth but scored 26 and 13 respectively.
Not far behind was Charteris on 10 and Omoyeni and Smithers both scoring eight.
The Titans will be hoping to maintain their form next week when they face Thunder again on home soil.
EBL Under 16 Boys Premier Division North
Northants Thunder 59 Northamptonshire Titans 68
A tough derby saw Titans take a third straight victory in a row.
In a game that many would say was called by the referees, both teams had to contend the calls as well as each other.
They both overcame this and played the game aggressively.
The first quarter saw the Titans run the wings, which has proved successful in their games so far.
An early lead of 18-12 was not enough to keep Thunder at bay, and a comeback in the second saw Thunder level at half-time.
Thunder continued fighting back leaving Titans’ defence bare at times.
But the fourth quarter saw Titans find another gear, taking control in the last five minutes over a fatigued Thunder team.
Titans earned the bragging rights with a 69-58 victory over Thunder.
Sharif St John top scored with 22, followed by Timi Gril with 14 and Reuben David with 10.
The under 16’s play in Birmingham in two weeks to hopefully continue their winning streak.
EBL Womens National Cup
Bromsgrove Bears 42 Northamptonshire Titans 60
Titans women made the short journey to Bromsgrove.
Only fielding six players, the Titan women were expecting a tough afternoon.
It was captain Angelina Browne who dominated in both paints and was a constant thorn in the side for the Bromsgrove Bears throughout, with Titans taking a 31-25 half time lead into the locker room.
The third quarter saw both teams trade baskets and missed opportunities, and with only a six point lead going into the fourth, Bears must have believed they could turn the game around.
But Titans’ new recruits of Esme Kinghorn and Yvette Williams came to the forefront, and with Sascha Thompson sparking an 11-2 run with her trade mark 3 point shot, Titans put the game out of reach and sealed the game winning 60-42.
Browne had an impressive double double with 32 points and a massive 21 rebounds, she was well supported by Kinghorn with 13 and Williams with 10.
Coach Barry Powell said: “This was a real team effort. We may have been light on personnel, but we showed good strength in character to grind out this result.”
EBL VCARS.co.uk Division Three Men South
Northamptonshire Titans 69 Ipswich Tomcats 105
Titans men’s squad couldn’t handle the size of an impressive Ipswich side who will have a major impact on division three this season.
Titans started well enough, showing significant improvement on last week’s performance in Hackney, keeping the game tight in the early stages.
But as the game went on, Titans had no answer for Ipswich’s 7’0” centre Leigh Greenan, who ended up with 24 points and 20 rebounds in a dominant display.
They also had no answer to an Ipswich team that shot 68 per cent from the field including 50 per cent from three-point range meaning they continually edged further away from the home side.
Ttians by contrast had a disappointing display, shooting only 34 per cent as they still try to find cohesion as the squad comes together, too often trying for shots early in the shot clock.
There were positive signs of progress however from the inexperienced Titans squad, turnovers were down and Abraham Twumasi began to show what he can offer with 13 points,
Benjy Henry started to look like the player of old with 12 points and 14 rebounds but it was Danny Barrett with 19 points who led the resistance for the home side.
Next weekend offers another chance to get the season off and running with a double header, as they travel to Oxford on Saturday, and welcome local rivals Northants Thunder to Weavers in the National Shield on Sunday.
Fixtures
Saturday, October 20
12.30pm: Titans Under 13 Boys v Bucks Hornets at Weavers Leisure Centre, Wellingborough
2.30pm: Titans Under 14 Boys v Northants Thunder at Weavers Leisure Centre, Wellingborough
4pm: Titans Women’s team away v Cardif Archers II at UWIC
5.30pm: Titans Men’s team away v Oxford Brookes Uni in Oxford
Sunday, October 21
2.30pm: Titans Under 15 Boys v YH Leicester Dynamite at Weavers Leisure Centre, Wellingborough
5.30pm: Titans Men’s team v Northants Thunder in the National Shield at Weavers Leisure Centre, Wellingborough
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