Basketball

CUP finals took pride of place as the holders of both trophies lost their grip with the Playsport League Cup changing hands from Tigers to Mavericks while Mariners lost their hold on the Second Division Roy Puttick Trophy in favour of Norton II.

Mavericks, looking to recapture their form of 1996/97 season when they won both league and cup titles, looked uncertain in the opening minutes of play against Tigers at The Dolphin Centre, Darlington.

A couple of strikes from Lee Woolams and a trio of three pointers by Steve Dolphin set Tigers up for a first quarter lead of 17 points to 13. At the end of an even second period Tigers still led by three points to lead 28-25.

Mavericks started the second-half more upbeat and with Ian Viveash taking the game to Tigers, the league leaders looked sharper with Andy Reid hitting a series of three from the three-point mark and Phil McCarthy adding a long distance effort.

In the final session, Tigers were restricted to ten points with Mavericks more active with Viveash keeping his scoring on a roll and McCarthy with another three pointer did just enough to take the League Cup back to Middlesbrough for the first time in four seasons with a 62-56 win.

Mavericks had four players in double figures, Reid, McCarthy and Wayne Bailey as Viveash top scored with 20 points. Tigers had Steve Dolphin top scoring with 16 points as Woolams added 15 and Steve Cowell 14 points.

Marske Mariners had the advantage of home court when they faced Norton II in the Roy Puttick final and wasted no time when they flew into an early first quarter lead of 18-10 with Paul Neesam hitting seven in the opening period.

In a quieter second ten minutes both sides battled to work on their defence and as much as this worked for Mariners they gave away unnecessary fouls which allowed Norton the chance to pull back into the game in a period when they were finding it difficult to score. At the half-way stage Mariners had the edge to lead 25-18.

Putting the break to good use, Norton reorganised with Mark Winter and Chris Ellis leading from the front they pulled their side back into the game to be up by a point at the end of the third quarter, 41-40.

Mariners hit 18 points but it wasn't enough as first Ellis went to the line for two and with the last shot of the game Winter held out to hit one from two to give Norton a 60-58 win. Norton relied on three players for points as Ellis top scored on 24, Winter added 16 and Andy Rees 14. Mariners lacked their usual scoring power as Neesam with 17 points and Ian Dixon 14 points were the only other players to get any where near double figures.