Teesside League

Norton, looking to bounce back against Thornaby, following their first league defeat of the season against Mavericks, found a saviour in the form of Glen Urban.

Urban quickly stamped his authority on the game, hitting the opening eight points for Norton as the visitors struggled to escape the defensive man to man shackles imposed by Norton. A first quarter lead of 17-9 was stretched in the second period to 42-20 as Urban scored 24 points and missed eight free shots as Thornaby could not contain his scoring threat. The second half was much the same as the visitors got into foul trouble, the Norton offence rolled on as they accumulated a final score of 95-48 to win comfortably. Urban finished with 42 points as Paul Robinson, Craig Hopwood and Jefferson Harper got into double figures for Thoranby.

Unbeaten Middlesbrough Mavericks turned out a mixed squad at Middlesbrough College but still proved too hot to handle, running out 104-70 winners.

The accurate scoring of Ian Viveash and Ade Onagoruwak, slick handling and fast breaks contributed to the students' inability to stop the flow of points against, down at the break 33-56.

The visitors were able to continue their all round team play against a young college side who fought to the final whistle but found defeat of little comfort. Onagoruwak top scored for Maverick with 26 points as Tony Smelt hit 29 for College.

Tigers, with injury problems, thought they may struggle against East Cleveland Ruins and had to reply on their juniors which proved a great success. However, the thorn in the Ruins' side was the rebounding domination of Lee Woolams assisted by Steve Cowell which saw them up at half time by 37-17. With plenty of opportunity to give the youngsters court time Andy Jowers and James Hodgson blossomed as they ran the fast break to completely destroy the visiting Ruins' defensive capabilities and saw their side win a one-sided game by 84-30. Woolams was again Tigers top scorer with 33 points in the game.

Marske Mariners hosted Norton II and raced into a 12-2 lead before being pegged back by team fouls but still had enough in hand to lead at the break 34-24.

A strong third quarter by Norton saw them claw themselves back in the game despite two three-pointers from Paul Neesam which just saw Mariners ahead 50-58 at the end of the period.

The final ten minutes play Mariners had Lewis Tovery and then Edwin Swain in foul trouble letting the initiative got to Norton as both sides fought it out in the last minutes.

Neesam went to the line in the dying minutes for five free throws, but his accuracy let him down hitting only two which left his side one point short on the final whistle 65-66 as Norton stole the league points. Neesam led Mariners' scoring eith 34 points as Norton had Martin Kelsey 21pts and Chris Ellis 20pts.

Yarm Conyers, trying to play catch up with their fixtures, due to their home court being unavailable for the opening league, were blitzed in the second quarter of their game against Darlington Devils, hitting only seven points against Devils' 33, trailing 55-21 at the half.

A better performance in the second period gave some respectability but Craig Dawson had a field day hitting 30pts well supported by Steve Hardy with 22 as they romped home by 105-64. Mark Hawkins hit a valuable 20 points for Conyers