Durham League

Nissan and Teesside Huskies A shared the honours in the final week of the season, although the former missed out on making it a double celebration.

Nissan beat champions East Durham and Houghall Academy 80-71 in the Men's Division One Cup final but then lost to Teesside Huskies A 84-71 in the Men's County Cup final. The league cup victory came first, and Arran Hope and Bill Spragg shared a 9-2 spell which turned a 10-8 deficit into a 17-12 lead by the end of the opening ten minutes. Academy regained the lead at the start of the second quarter, but this time a pair of three-point baskets from Chris Maddison sparked Nissan and a superb ten minutes of entertaining basketball finished with Nissan just up at 34-33. The turning point of the game came after another eight minutes had Nissan 53-52 ahead. Two Nissan baskets caused ructions in the Academy camp and led to disqualification of Roni Gordon. Spragg held his nerve to hit five from seven from the line and just a minute later Nissan were on the way to the win with a 62-52 cushion. Spragg led the scoring with 23 for Nissan, while Hope and Neil Thorne added 18 and 16. Four players hit double figures for Academy; John Simpson (18), Paul Butler (18), Daniel Kerr (13) and Gordon (10). Nissan's Steve Dixon picked up the game 'most valuable player' award.

A strong finish netted Teesside Huskies A the County Cup, although there was drama before the game began when doubts about the eligibility of two players was raised. It was decided to play the game and ask the questions later and for now the cup belongs to Huskies. In the tie itself, Neil Thorne and Arran Hope did the early scoring as Nissan led 25-16 after 11 minutes, but Huskies had reduced the deficit to 41-35 by the break. That pattern was repeated in the second half. Nissan pulled away, Huskies fought back and with eight minutes left the cup was anyone's with Nissan just up 61-59. A pair of baskets each from Usman Cmera and Tony Hanson gave Huskies a 67-61 lead and seemed to knock the fight out of Nissan as the Billingham side charged home. Cmera was excellent with 31 points for Huskies, although the MVP trophy went to teammate John Anderson who scored 20, Hanson and Nick O'Harabe added 17 and ten. Thorne was outstanding for Nissan with 30 points, Hope and Dixon chipped in with 16 and ten.

l With the season now over the round up of statistics continues with a look at the first division and the final league tables and leading scorers are shown below.

Division One

P W L Pts

ED and H Academy 12 10 2 32

Norton 12 8 4 28

Middlesbrough Mavericks 12 7 5 26

Nissan 12 7 5 26

Teesside Huskies A 12 6 6 22

University of Teesside 12 2 10 16

ED and H College A 12 2 10 16

Division One Cup

ED and H Academy 6 5 1 16

Nissan 6 4 2 14

Norton 6 4 2 14

Teesside Huskies A 6 3 3 12

Middlesbrough Mavericks 6 2 4 10

University of Teesside 6 1 5 8

ED and H College A 6 0 6 6

Leading points scorers (league): Steve Butler (Norton) 256, Ian Viveash (Middlesbrough Mavericks) 242, Neil Thorne (Nissan) 218, Marek Pawlak (Middlesbrough Mavericks) 216, Arran Hope (Nissan) 210, Glen Urban (Norton) 200, Bill Spragg (Nissan) 195, John Simpson (ED and H Academy) 189, Robert Rough (University of Teesside) 178, Mat Ellis (University of Teesside) 174, John Harding (ED and H College A) 172, Tony Hanson (Teesside Huskies A) 152.

Leading points scorers (Division One Cup): Neil Thorne (Nissan) 164, Glen Urban (Norton) 163, Arran Hope (Nissan) 124, John Simpson (ED and H Academy) 117, Roni Gordon (ED and H Academy) 116, Bill Spragg (Nissan) 108, Chris Maddison (Nissan) 98, Marek Pawlak (Middlesbrough Mavericks) 96, Keith Dolby (ED and H Academy) 89, Steve Butler (Norton) 83, Ian Viveash (Middlesbrough Mavericks) 80, Lee Davie (Nissan) 76.

Leading points scorers (combined): Neil Thorne (Nissan) 383, Glen Urban (Norton) 363, Steve Butler (Norton) 339, Arran Hope (Nissan) 334, Ian Viveash (Middlesbrough Mavericks) 322, Marek Pawlak (Middlesbrough Mavericks) 312, John Simpson (ED and H Academy) 306 , Bill Spragg (Nissan) 303, Roni Gordon (ED and H Academy) 253.