w/e 27/01/08 Barkers (Tarring) Worthing Thunder finished their BBL Trophy campaign in disappointing fashion, losing a low scoring game against BBL new boys PAWS London Capital 72-56 at the Capital City Academy on Sunday. With Demetrius Scott beng rested as his recovery from his sprained ankle continued, Capital moved out to a 20-11 lead late in the first quarter when Santa Ataha hit a three pointer. With Ataha also scoring four points early in the second, the home side found their lead extended to 29-13. Thunder struggled to score against their BBL opponents and found themselves 36-21 down at the half. Thunder came out strongly in the second half, and a James Mooney three closed out an 11-0 run for the visitors to make it 42-38 to Capital. Sam Bradley then took over, scoring London's next 10 points, Pat Bates providing the only response for Thunder with 3 of 4 from the foul line as the quarter ended 52-41 to London. Capital kept Thunder at bay during the fourth period, and although Dan Midgley's basket closed it back to 8 with under 2 minutes to play, but some Thunder turnovers allowed the home side to stretch the final margin to 16. Scorers: Thunder - Bates 19, Brame 10, Hildreth 9, Mooney 6, Woodfork 6, Burns 4, Midgley 2, Marrast 0, Berry, Ugbana DNP. Capital - Bradley 19, Perkins 16, Ataha 11, Gariba 9, Stancil 4, Mbeye 4, Simon 3, Abu 2, Ogdengbe 2, Grossett 2, Henry-Fontaine 0. w/e 20/01/08 Saturday saw Thunder take on reigning BBL champions Guildford Heat in the BBL Trophy, anxious to avoid a repeat of the 49 point hammering dished out to them at the Spectrum two weeks earlier. With American guard Demetrius Scott rested to enable him to have the best chance of being able to contribute to the Reading game the following day, Thunder were always going to be up against it, but put in a good account of themselves before going down 99-77. With Guildford due to fly out to Turkey for their final ULEB cup game on Sunday morning, Heat coach Paul James rested starters Tony Dorsey and EJ Harrison and Thunder took advantage, holding their illustrious visitors for the first 15 minutes before a 10-2 run gave the Heat a 35-26 lead. Heat extended the gap to 44-32 at the half and then 48-32 before a Thunder 9-0 run sparked by four fouls, including 2 technicals, called in quick succession on Heat captain Michael Martin, saw him foul out of the game. Five points late in the third quarter from Daniel Hildreth reduced the gap to 5 at 59-54, but that was as close as Thunder got, as Heat, led by Dan Wardrope (11 points) and Nerijus Karlikavas (9 points), won the final quarter 31-21 to seal the victory having already guaranteed their place in the BBL Trophy semi finals. Thunder were led by Cleve Woodfork's 22 points, with Ryan Marrast contribting 13 off the bench. Dean Williams and Dan Wardrope topped the Heat scorers with 20 points; Chi Lewis Parry added 9 rebounds to his 13 points.
Scorers: Thunder - Woodfork
22, Marrast 13, Brame 12, Mooney 11, Hildreth 9, Bates 4, Midgley 3, Burns 3. w/e02/12/07 Barkers (Tarring) Worthing Thunder's 11 match unbeaten run to start the season finished on Saturday night, but only after a gallant display saw them ultimately fall just short of defeating BBL side PAWS London Capital in the BBL Trophy. In a closely contested game, Capital held the edge having trailed early on, but Worthing kept it tight, and it was only a late 8 point burst that saw the visitors take a double digit victory. The sides traded baskets in the opening stages, and when James Mooney hit his second three of the night the hosts led 19-17; however, back to back baskets by the game's leading scorer Sam Bradley gave Capital a 21-19 advantage, a lead that they never lost. As Thunder pushed to recover the lead, Cleve Woodfork was drawing fouls and ended up 9/10 from the foul line, but was 2/10 from the floor as he finished with 7 rebounds to go with his 13 points. James Mooney continued his fine recent form with 7/10 shooting on is way to 20 points, but Thunder's leading scorer was Demetrius Scott who added 5 assists to his 24 points. For Capital, leading scorer Sam Bradley had 26 on 9/9 two point shooting, which made up for his below average 2/7 three point shooting. Wes Miller had a quiet evening; restricted to a solitary three pointer in the first half, he then combined with Bradley for 16 of Capital's last 18 points to guide them to victory but still only ended with 10 on the night. In the end, Capital pulled off the victory to take the early lead in the Trophy pool, which also contains current BBL Champions Guildford Heat, but Thunder will take great heart from the fact that with 5 minutes to go they were very much still in the contest at 76-80.
Scorers -
Thunder - Scott 24, Mooney 20, Woodfork 13, Brame 7, Marrast 7, Ugbana 6,
Midgley 3, Bates 2, Berry, Burns DNP. |
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