Durham League

The Durham County basketball season ended this week with its traditional week of cup finals.

Middlesbrough College Academy were the undoubted heavyweights of the week as they not only lifted the two most prestigious cups, but also snatched the first division title to complete a league treble in their first ever season in Durham competition. That meant that the biggest losers of the week were Middlesbrough Mavericks who lost both finals and took the bridesmaid spot in the league.

The best game of the week gave Middlesbrough College Academy their first trophy as they beat Middlesbrough Mavericks 83-74 in the Division One Cup Final.

This game had everything and was a credit to the two teams. 36 minutes of a pulsating tie was even cut and thrust as the speed and skill of the Academy players was countered by the sheer physical presence of Mavericks big men and with only four minutes left the sides were locked together at 62-61. Finally Mavericks faltered as four attacks failed to net a basket. At the other end of court Williams Omope, Kehinde Roberts and Carl Latham-Henry shared in an 11-0 run which effectively gave them the spoils as Mavericks could not recover the 72-62 gap which had opened up

One consolation for Mavericks was the fact that Marek Pawlak won the 'mvp' award with 35 excellent points. The Academy win though was founded on superb team-work which netted double figures for five of their players; Marlan Henry (21), Kehinde Roberts (16), Carl Latham-Henry (16), Wayne Robinson (16) and Omope (12).

The second Middlesbrough College Academy win of the week, this time in the Mens County Cup Final, was a real sickener for Middlesbrough Mavericks because it came in the dying moments as Academy somehow managed to turn a 72-68 deficit with ninety seconds left into a 73-72 success.

Mavericks are still trying to work out how they had managed to lose both a 46-34 twenty-second minute lead and the cup, because things had started so well. After an even 18-17 first quarter Ian Viveash, Marek Pawlak and Mat Ellis had all shone in a 20-4 surge in the seven minutes before half time which took them into the break 40-32 up. Wayne Robinson won himself the 'mvp' trophy as he led the Academy fight-back, a recovery which netted them 19 points without reply and turned that 46-34 deficit into a 53-46 lead with twelve minutes left on the clock. Once again Pawlak and Viveash shared the points in Mavericks own come-back as they again led 72-68 before a three-point basket from Robinson and a two free-shots from Marlan Henry in the very last few seconds of the game gave them an amazing victory.

Robinson did finish as the leading scorer for Academy with 22 points, Kehinde Roberts and Carl Latham-Henry added 18 and 15, whilst Pawlak once again led the way for Mavericks with 25 points.

Tyneside won the Womens County Cup for the eighth time in the last ten years with a 98-48 demolition job on Newcastle College.

The final was all done and dusted by the interval which Tyneside took at 59-19. College did not help themselves by making lots of basic errors, but the points still had to be scored and it was Deridre Hayes who did that with 26 of her 29 point match total in a first half which she totally dominated. Taacha Brown did managed to top her in the solo points department with 36, but it was an amazing powerhouse first-half performance of speed and skill which gave Tyneside the spoils.

Sharron Cairns and Emma Ross hit double figures for Newcastle College with 18 and 13 each, but it was the virtuoso performance from Hayes in the opening twenty-minutes which netted her the 'mvp' trophy.

East Durham and Houghall College B won the Division Two Cup with a 104-70 success against Trimdon Community College Association.

College began to take control of the game in the second quarter and although Ian Harrison finished the first half with ten points in a row, College were sitting comfortably on a 45-35 cushion at half-time. Wood went into overdrive on the restart to hit 15 points in the quarter which scored 27-19 to College and extended their advantage to 72-54 with ten minutes left to play. Unfortunately that was when the Trimdon legs seemed to give out and 32 points shared between seven players won College the cup.

Tom Wood was the undoubted 'star' of the show and his 41 points for East Durham helped win him the 'most valuable player' award. Paul, David and Andrew Bains also hit double figures for College with 17, 16 and 14 points each. Harrison did most to keep Trimdon afloat with 25 points as Chris Elliott and Lee Armstrong finished with 17 and 14.

Tyne and Wear Cadettes are the youngest and newest team in the Durham Womens League and they made the most of a 30 point start to win the Handicap Cup 114-100 against Nunthorpe Boro Bruins.

As so often happens when faced by a big deficit the chasing team, in this case Nunthorpe, freezes. And that is exactly what Nunthorpe did, so that by the end of the opening ten minutes Cadettes had actually added three points to their start at 56-23. Those same 30 points separated the teams at 76-46 at half-time and only in the final quarter did Nunthorpe really begin to make inroads into the deficit as they closed to 106-98 with just ninety seconds left

Laura Calder was the biggest individual winner on the night as she collected 38 points and took the 'mvp' trophy. The unluckiest person on the night just had to be Nunthorpe's Sarah Hindmarch who, despite hitting a massive 54 points, still ended up on the losing side.

The last winners of the week were Specsavers Wear Valley Wolves who won themselves the Division Three Cup with a 95-74 win over Durham Saints which had all the drama and skill of the ones which had gone before it.

A 28-11 second quarter gave Wolves the advantage at 50-32, a lead which no matter how hard Saints tried, they could not counter. An 18-2 run in the middle of the third quarter was Saints best and did cut the gap to 56-50, but it was Wolves young guns, Ian Stringer, Kevan Kosoko and 'man-of-the-match' Sam Attah who finished Saints off in the last quarter.

Durham League Results

Mens County Cup Final : Middlesbrough College Academy 73 Middlesbrough Mavericks 72. Womens County Cup Final : Tyneside 98 Newcastle College 48 .

Division One Cup Final : Middlesbrough College Academy 83 Middlesbrough Mavericks 74 . Division Two Cup Final : East Durham and Houghall College B 104 Trimdon Community College Association 70 .

Division Three Cup Final : Specsavers Wear Valley Wolves 95 Durham Saints 74 .

Womens Handicap Cup Final : Tyne and Wear Cadettes 114 Nunthorpe Boro Bruins 100. League Games Division Two: Hartlepool CJ Hydraulics 93 Durham Knights 40 .

Women's Division: University of Teesside 65 Northumbria 89.