Durham League - With one week of the season left, most of the important issues have been decided.
Tyneside, without dropping a point from their 15 games, ended their best season, winning the Women's League title, with a 79-64 win over Sunderland Nissan who took the league runners-up spot and the derby was full of all of the usual tension and drama.
Nissan could not stop the accurate early shooting of Sarah Hindmarch and Zoe Vickers, while at the other end of court a double team on the Sunderland ball carrier gave Tasha Brown a run of easy baskets and Tyneside a 23-4 lead after only seven minutes. A switch to man defence and some good drives from Judith English and Beryl Davison brought Sunderland back to 48-35 by the interval. Tyneside upped the pressure and by the sixth minute the deficit had stretched to 59-37 again. Once again Sunderland came back, this time through 10 points in a row from Linda Green, but the closest they got was 73-58 in the sixth minute of the final quarter before Brown eased Tyneside away again.
Three players shared most of the Tyneside points, Brown (22), Vickers (21) and Hindmarch (20). English and Green hit double figures for Sunderland Nissan with 19 and 18.
Middlesbrough Mavericks pulled off a surprise 81-72 victory against guests Nissan.
A 12-4 spell shared between Marek Pawlak, Andy Buchanan and Ian Viveash in the middle of the first quarter kept Mavericks one step ahead for most of the game.
The gap had stretched to 24-16 when the ten minutes ended and the second quarter was more of the same as Mavericks took the break 37-32 to the good. The third quarter was Nissan's best. Arran Hope set the tone with an early three-point basket and by the eighth minutes Neil Thorne had given them the lead for the first time at 51-49. Ade Onaguruwa then joined Pawlak to ease Mavericks away again as Nissan ran out of steam in the final quarter. Four players hit double figures for Middlesbrough Mavericks; Buchanan (16), Pawlak (15), Viveash (15) and Andy Reid (12). Hope, Spragg and Thorne led the Nissan scoring with 24, 19 and 15 points each
Results - Division One: Middlesbrough Mavericks 81, Nissan 72.
Division Two: Belmont Reds 91, Willington Parkside 65; Shildon Strollers 71, Consett Steelers 98.
Division Three: Hartlepool Hornets B 67, Trimdon Community Collge Association 64; Durham Saints 63, Hartlepool CJ Hydraulics B 41.
Womens Division: Sunderland Nissan 64, Tyneside 79 Nunthorpe Boro Bruins 49, South Tyneside 60.
Division Two champions Consett Steelers lost their only league game, 69-63 at Willington, but won the championship by a comfortable margin.
Only Hartlepool Hornets A got anywhere near them, but the North-West Durham side managed a league double over the runners-up. The Division Two Cup final was an all-Durham affair in which Belmont Reds had a last gasp 72-70 success over neighbours Durham Knights.
Division Two
- Final table -
P W L Pts
Consett Steelers 16 15 1 46
Hartlepool Hornets A 16 12 4 40
Old Houghtonians 16 8 8 32
Willington Parkside 16 9 7 32
Belmont Reds 16 8 8 31
Durham Knights 16 7 9 29
Hartlepool CJ Hydraulics A 16 4 12 23
Peterlee Videon 16 5 11 21
Shildon Strollers 16 4 12 19
Leading individual scorers: Matthew Patterson (Consett Steelers) 338, Craig Dawson (Willington) 287, Dave Storey (Belmont Reds) 259, Gary Keith (Hartlepool CJ Hydraulics A) 246, Grant Wakefield (Willington) 216, Paul Carr (Old Houghtonians) 215, Gavin Hope (Durham Knights) 197, Bruce Marshall (Hartlepool Hornets A) 195, Mal Ballard (Shildon Strollers) 191, John Middleton (Hartlepool Hornets A) 190, Stephen Pearce (Hartlepool CJ Hydraulics A) 185, Brendan McNeaney (Consett Steelers) 181, Steve Porteus (Durham Knights) 181, Simon Briault (Durham Knights) 179, Garry Gowans (Consett Steelers) 167, James MacIntosh (Old Houghtonians) 171.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article