Basketball

Tyne and Wear Cadettes grabbed the headlines this week when they beat East Durham and Houghall Academy 72-65 to reach the final of the Durham League Womens Handicap Cup.

Tyne and Wear were given a 30 point start and, as so often in these handicap games the team facing the big deficit seems overawed. As a result Academy opened on the back foot and the Cadettes were able to cash in to match them basket-for-basket and keep their 30 point advantage at 42-12 by the end of the opening ten minutes. Academy upped the pressure in the second quarter, but they had shaved only eight points off the Tyne and Wear lead as they reached the interval with a healthy 55-32 cushion.

The third quarter was more of the same, hard-working pressure defence from Academy, but the Cadettes managing to find chinks in their armour as points from Laura Calder and Joella Lynch left them well placed with a 67-46 cushion with ten minutes to go. That final quarter was full of tension and drama as the Academy press finally told and Tyne and Wear could net only five points. At the other end of court the baskets were rattling up, but fortunately not as quickly as they needed to and the Tyne and Wear youngsters held on to win a place in the cup final.

Calder was the sole Tyne and Wear player in double figures with 15 points, whilst the 18 and 17 from Ruth Cass and Natalie McKenley respectively were not enough to win the game for Academy.

Four players shared almost all of the Nissan points; Arran Hope (27), Fenwick (16), Forster (16) and Gavin Hope (10).

Middlesbrough Mavericks took another big step towards the Durham League Division One title when they beat Nissan 86-71 on their court at the Washington factory.

Nissan made the better start through brothers Arran and Gavin Hope to lead 14-4 after five minutes. An even spell then followed before baskets from Marek Pawlak in a 9-4 finish to the quarter cut the gap to just 20-17 as Mavericks started to warm up.

Five players hit double figures for Middlesbrough Mavericks; Viveash (20), Pawlak (17), Buchanan (14), Johnson (10) and Wayne Bailey (10), whilst four players shared almost all of the Nissan points.