Durham League

NORTON inflicted a first defeat of the season on neighbours Teesside Huskies A in a pool game of the Division One Cup. Norton came away with a 98-78 triumph.

Steve Butler produced his own version of a firework spectacular as time after time he bombed Huskies basket to totally steal the show and finish with a massive 54 points.

Both teams were under strength, but Huskies more so than Norton, and the result was an even, competitive game until the final quarter when Butler made the game his own. Norton just had the edge during the first half and led 32-23 after ten minutes and 47-46 by the 20th. James Thompson and Tom Applegarth combined well on the restart and Huskies enjoyed their best spell to just nick the advantage at 72-71 with ten minutes to play. The final quarter belonged to Butler as he single-handedly set Huskies hoop on fire.

Dave Murphy hit 18 points for Norton, Thompson and Applegarth led Huskies A with 21 and 19.

Middlesbrough Mavericks were lucky to win a cracking cup contest with Nissan, the tie edged 80-76 by Mavericks.

Just as in the Norton victory, so this game was dominated by one individual as Marek Pawlak battled away inside the Nissan zone to net 41 points. This time though, and as the score suggests, exchanges were hard and even from start to finish. Mavericks led 39-36 at the interval, Nissan edged ahead at 57-54 by the end of the third quarter and with two minutes on the clock the sides were locked at 74-74. Two baskets from Pawlak gave the locals breathing space before two free-throws from Ian Viveash sealed Mavericks win. Viveash added 26 points to the 41 scored by Pawlak. Neil Thorne and Neil Baxter did best for Nissan with 22 and 18 apiece.

With the smell of fireworks still in the air, sparks were expected to fly when the two East Durham and Houghall teams met in their cup derby, but by the end the tension had fizzled out as the Basketball Academy recorded a 101-76 success against the Community College.

The die was cast in the first half. Keith Dolby, playing his first game for some time, was unstoppable for the Academy and 25 points from him formed the basis of their 52-36 half-time cushion, a lead which the Community College could never challenge. Adam Williams and John Bergin started well enough for College, but when Richard Lacey and John Simpson added a few sparklers to those of Dolby there was only going to be one result.

Five players hit double figures for E.D. and H. Academy; Dolby (32), Simpson (18), Luke Deering (14), Roni Jordon (11) and Lacey (10). Williams and Bergin finished with 23 and 17 each for E.D. and H. College A.

Tyneside went to town in this week's quarter-final round of the Womens Durham County Cup when they demolished hosts University of Teesside 117-46. Tyneside seem to have unearthed a new young star in Natasha Brown who helped herself to 27 match points, although two of their current stars Sarah Hindmarch and Zoe Vickers both equalled her with 27 apiece. Deirdre Hayes who guides them all along did not do so badly with 21 points of her own and the match as a contest was all over bar the shouting when Tyneside reached the break 54-26 ahead.

Nuthorpe Boro Bruins and Newcastle College Wildcats also reached the semi-final stages of the Women's County Cup with 59-40 and 44-33 victories over Whickham and South Tyneside respectively.

Nuthorpe had 33 points from Ruth Barron to thank for their success and the win was set up during a first twenty minutes in which the Middlesbrough side outscored their Gateshead visitors by two baskets to one to take the break 27-14 up.

Newcastle College laid the foundation for their victory with an explosive opening which netted them a 19-10 cushion.

The rest of the contest scored even as South Tyneside failed to make any dent in the deficit. Emma Lawrence top scored for Wildcats with 12 points.