w/e 20/01/08 Towers Toppled as Trailblazers II Book Place in Final of EBL Men’s Shield Derby Trailblazers Division Four Men’s side are through to Final of the EBL Men’s National Shield, after knocking out third division London Towers, in a 106-95 road victory. It was Derby’s fourth scalping of a team from a higher division and it left Coach Jamie Maudsley feeling ecstatic. “We played Kings Lynn in the first round of the competition, but we already knew that we would face Mansfield in the second round if we won that game. After our first team had lost to Mansfield, all I wanted was to get through the first round, so we could try and make amends on behalf of the first team against Mansfield. So to be standing here today, knowing that we not only beat Mansfield, but we’ve also beaten three other third division sides to reach the final, it’s really quite incredible.” Derby made a good start to the contest, and were leading 28-19 by the time Simon Allaway banged home his third three-pointer of the night, after just nine minutes. But Towers had the better start to the second period, quickly establishing a 36-33 advantage. However, a second trey from Tim Lascelles was followed by another long range basket from Allaway to put Derby back in front. Trailblazers dominated the third quarter, taking full advantage of a technical foul on Towers to convert one from two at the line and net a sixth three-pointer from Allaway on the possession. That left Derby 79-66 ahead inside the final minute of the third quarter and they further extended their lead to 83-69 by the close of the period. Strong play from Karolis Stepanovicius and Tom Adorian helped Towers gradually chip away at Derby’s advantage and three point play from Stepanovicius get the deficit to 88-91 with four minutes to play. But whilst Towers became more and more riled by the pressure, Derby kept their cool and a trey from Mike McLeod restored a 10 point lead with two minutes left in the game. Towers again cut the gap to 5, before Dave Attewell sealed the win from the charity stripe, with four out of six successful free-throws from successive fouls. Allaway finished with 32 points and 6 assists, but a trio of junior players played strong supporting roles. Jake Clulow finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, Damien Cope had 8 points and 5 rebounds and Mikey Manghum scored 9 points as well as dishing off an astonishing 12 assists to his team-mates. “Allaway’s playing really well right now,” Maudsley said. “The past few games, he’s probably averaging 35 points a game, but he’s not taking a lot of shots to do that, which is good. But I want to give particular credit to the kids. Damien, Jake, Mikey all had huge games for us. They were the ones who were out there when it was tough and they made some great passes, grabbed some really big rebounds and you can’t win the game without people getting stuck in like they did.” Derby will face Worcester Wolves in the Final at Manchester’s Amaechi Centre on February 17th, after they overcame Bradford Dragons in a match that went to overtime. And Maudsley says whichever of the two sides had got through, the final was always going to be a tough job. “Worcester are a great side. They must be tough just to have got to the final, so we’ve just got to play how we’ve played in the last few games and do our job. The important thing is, it’s a final and anything can happen in a final, so it’s really hard to predict,” he said. w/e 25/11/07 Trailblazers II progress to Quarter Finals of Men’s Shield Derby Trailblazers Division Four Men’s side are through to quarter finals of the EBL Men’s National Shield, after knocking out third division Brookes Sport Oxford, thanks to an 89-87 road victory. It’s the second time this season that Derby’s development team has taken the scalp of a club from a higher league, much to the delight of Head Coach Jamie Maudsley. “In the scheme of things, it's a great result for us, but I really felt we should've put them away at the start of the 4th quarter,” Maudsley explained. “We were up by ten or twelve points or so, but because we're quite a young team, we made a couple of bad decisions from both the playing and the coaching perspectives and that let them back into the game. Fortunately, we’ve got a couple of really experienced guys like Mike McLeod & Tim Lascelles in our team and they really helped keep us on track.” Derby had the edge throughout a tight first quarter, before establishing a seven point lead by halftime, aided by a pair of three-pointers from Lascelles. Trailblazers continued to dominate the third, but nerves began to show in the 4th, as Oxford’s Yannick Bulambwe started to dominate inside. Most of Derby’s attempt to stop Bulambwe from scoring resulted in fouls being conceded and Coach Maudsley admits there was a time when he felt the game may be slipping away. “There was a spell in the 4th where they could've gotten away from us, but Jake Clulow came up with a steal & a fast break lay-up which gave us a lift. And with guys like Tim & Mike on the floor, you tend to get a lot more leadership on the floor and that helped us get the win.” McLeod went to top score for Derby, with 27 points, just eclipsing the efforts of Bulambwe, who finished with 23. The Trailblazers will go to face either Leeds Met or Mansfield Giants in the quarter finals of the competition and Maudsley says whichever side they play, it will be very difficult. “I think Leeds won the competition last year and I know a few of the guys that play at Giants, so either way, it's going to be tough. They're both division three sides, but that's where we want to be, so it's good to be able to keep testing ourselves against teams from that level.” Trailblazers II remain unbeaten in league competition, but Maudsley says promotion is by no means certain. “I’m pleased to be in the position of not having lost in the league, but I’m not completely happy with how we’ve been playing,” he said. “There are a few good sides in our league and we'll have to improve if we want to beat them. So for that reason, it's great to be still in the Shield where we’re coming up against teams from a higher level, because it's going to help make us better.”
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