Just a week after the Bradford Dragons were beaten in their final game of the regular National Basketball League Division One season at the hands of Worthing Thunder, they were back again at the West Sussex club in the quarter-finals of the play-offs.

Second seed Worthing, against the seventh-seed Bradford side, made home advantage count, taking a second successive 10-point win over the Dragons, beating them 83-73 to end the West Yorkshire side's season.

From the tip-off, Worthing immediately put up the first points of the game.

However, through a combination of solid defence and a quick fire offence, the Dragons notched up the next ten to give themselves an early 10-2 lead.

But the Worthing response was immediate and they roared back to lead 12-10 less than two minutes later.

Jordan Whelan tied the game up for Bradford and then Jabari Edwards layed up to give the Dragons back their lead, but American David Moya followed up with a trey to put the hosts 15-14 ahead.

The home side soon edged further clear and by the end of the opening quarter they had a 24-19 point lead.

Into the second period, Worthing struck first, before Justin Williams and then Micah Savery-Richards clawed the score back to 28-25.

But in what was a relatively low scoring quarter for both sides, Thunder ultimately increased their advantage to 42-31 going into the half-time break.        

The underdogs had plenty of work to do if they were going to get back into this game, and that was exactly what they put in from the start of the third period.

Ricky Fetske sank a two-point layup, which was followed by a trey from Williams to reduce the deficit to just 42-36 in the opening minute of the second half.

As the quarter progressed the visitors slowly, but surely, bit away at Worthing’s lead and Rihards Sulcs eventually levelled the game, before Williams bucketed a two to put the Dragons 48-46 in front.

From there, the lead swung from side to side throughout the remainder of the quarter.

With Worthing ahead by one and just 16 seconds remaining of the penultimate period, Williams sent a home player to the line, where he sank both free shots.

Fetske then had the opportunity to tie the game, but he saw his three point attempt bounce agonisingly back off the rim.

The quarter ended with Worthing 59-56 in front.

Jermayne Laing pulled it back to a one-point ball game, with the first strike of the final quarter.

The game remained close and when Laing sank another two pointer, four minutes in, the scores were tied at 65-65.

Worthing, however, then upped their game and sank the next nine points unanswered.

That moved them 74-65 in front and although Bradford continued to fight, they could not muster up the strength to get themselves back into contention.

The game ended with the home side taking the spoils 83-73 to set themselves up with a home semi-final against the number three seeds, Derby Trailblazers.

Williams was once again the game’s high scorer, contributing 25 points to the Dragons’ total.

Williams finishes the season with an average of 24.3 points per game, which currently sees him second in the NBL standings for that statistic, with Hemel Storm’s Aaryn Rai currently just one tenth of a point ahead (Storm still have games to play).

Fetske was the only other Dragon to hit double figures with 16 points, while Savery-Richards led all players in rebounds with 10.

The other three quarter-final fixtures also went in favour of the higher seeds, with unbeaten (in all competitions) top seeds Hemel entertaining fourth seeds Reading Rockets in the other semi-final.

The management and players at Bradford Dragons have offered a huge thank you to all their fans for their fantastic support throughout the season.