National League basketball in association with Game Time & Ravenwood Roofing; call 01429 for all your roofing problems

A picture that tells a thousand words and to the right is an image captured by photographer; Wayne Beadle, which shows a demoralised Acho Anyigbo of Middlesbrough Lions slumped on the fall after being hurt both physically and emotionally in Lions dire first league game.

The photo summed up the feelings of the whole team, leaving the coaching staff and players scratching their heads in search of why and what went so wrong. A freak game or not, will be decided in the following games and playing three top teams in recent weeks has taken its toll on the Middlesbrough outfit, who are desperate to pick up their first win and give both their fans and the team a boost.

Middlesbrough Lions were aiming to bring a win to Eston Sports Academy when they hosted Durham Wildcats but they fell victim to a lack of spark on their own part and a faultless display from the visitors which resulted in a 42pt victory for Durham.

Both teams found the going difficult initially and it took three minutes for Durham star Steven Graham to find the net with a 3 pointer which instigated a flurry of action from the Wildcats as Sam Chambers and John Morgam added points to give the visitors an 8-0 lead approaching the seventh minute. It was at this point the disjoined Lions first marked the sheet as Damian Warriner claimed a lay up through a crowd.

This basket only seemed to anger the Wildcats as Graham and Hewitt poured in a 3 apiece while a good finish from Andrew Knox led to a 2-21 score at the end of the first quarter.

An embarrassing performance from the home side in front of large crowd, most of which were new faces, was put aside in the second quarter as the Lions galvanised and although it was a slow burning start, Lions Warriner drove for 2pts in the fourth minute to ignite the Middlesbrough side and spur Acho Anyigbo into action as the athletic Nigerian produced a good move under the basket to perform a And 1 play. This was countered by another 3 pointer from Durham’s Hewitt but it would be Lions who would continue the good form as James Thomson converted both free throws after being fouled by Hewitt followed by Warriner and Anyigbo to take the team to 12pts with two minutes remaining. Lee Norton then stepped up with 9pts along with a shot from Anyigbo to take the score to 23-35, a great and encouraging comeback from Lions who won this quarter by 7pts.

During the break a great performance by street dance group; Ruff Diamond wowed the crowd and the lacklustre first quarter was almost forgotten, almost until the third period got underway and Lions slipped back into a barren state of affairs and if possible provided a worse display as they failed to score for eight minutes and in the same period Wildcats struck gold with 20pts including 11pts from Graham.

In the seventh minute a moment of frustration saw Warriner and Hewitt clash and the resulting face off was separated by team mates and officials. During the eighth minute Norton broke the drought with two free throws after being fouled by Chambers. James Thomson then hit a shot off the dribble and this represented Lions first open play basket for ten minutes, a statistic that reflected the deficit of 33pts, 28-61.

The fourth quarter was Lions last chance to salvage some pride but the misery continued with Durham scoring for fun and Lions unable to buy a basket. Acho Anyigbo provided a glimmer of respect as he produced 7 of his teams 9pts the other coming from the animated drive of Michael Peddie which rounded off a game to forget for Middlesbrough. Ironically big hitting Steven Graham didn’t score in the final quarter although his 26pts in the previous three, including five 3’s was enough to earn the MVP award.

Lions coach; James Thomson was left scratching his head after the game. “We played terrible and I’m struggling to see how and where things went so badly. Taking nothing away from Durham; they played superb, but for us to hit only 37pts in a game is something I hope will spark a huge reaction from our players.” Added Coach Thomson.

A glance at the stats shows the problem with scoring as Lee Norton and Ryon Dixon endured a torrid time with 4 of 18 and 0 of 7 attempts respectively. In turnovers Dixon, Warriner and Norton lost the ball 7, 6 & 5 times respectively whereas the most turnovers from a Durham player was Chambers on 3.

Blame though can not be laid on individual players as none of the Lions put in a performance even close to their potential. Lions now go back to training with their next game being in two weeks time on 25th at home to Bury Blue Devils and Ryon Dixon is urging his team to show their potential, adding “We need to stick together. We know we are better than that; which is why we are all a bit shocked and puzzled to have lost in the way we did. It’s a shame that so many new people saw that display and I hope they will come back to see us and we give them a worthy performance against Bury.”

Top scorers
Lions: Anyigbo 13, Norton 12, Warriner 6, Thomson 4
Wildcats: Graham 26, Morgan 18, Chambers 11, Hewitt 8