Bradford Dragons lose to Derby Trailblazers in first final

Having qualified for the KitKing Trophy final, a competition contested for by all teams in the top flight of the National Basketball League, the Dragons travelled to Loughborough University to face current Division One leaders, Derby Trailblazers, in the final showdown.

Despite putting in a good overall performance, the Dragons were unable to match Derby’s superiority, eventually succumbing to an 89-74 defeat.

It was a sell-out crowd at Loughborough University’s Netball and Badminton centre, with a strong contingent of Bradford supporters making the trip to cheer on their side.

The two teams had already met twice this season, in the group stage of the KitKing Trophy, and in a league fixture at the Dragons Den. 

On both previous occasions, Derby had taken the wins, but confidence was high within the Dragons’ camp, going into Saturday’s game.

Head coach Chris Mellor had insisted: “On our day we can beat anybody, there’s no doubt about it, we’ve got the talent. In any sport, in a one-off game, anything can happen.”

As the game tipped-off in Loughborough, Zion Tordoff won the jump ball against Derby’s Raheem May-Thompson.

However, American point guard Justin Williams failed to land his first three point attempt, allowing Sam Masten to put the first points on the board, a lay-up, for Derby.

On the next play, Bradford’s Ronald Blain sank a trey to give the Dragons their first lead of the game.

Ronald Blain put Bradford's first points on the board and he ended up as their top scorer in the cup final. (Image: Peter Simmons.)

This was then followed by an Albert Margai driving layup to put Bradford three points clear, sending their raucous supporters into an early frenzy.

As the opening quarter played out, the two sides matched one another basket for basket.

That was until the final two-and-a-half minutes, in which Bradford’s failure to add to their tally allowed their opponents to build up a 24-18 advantage to take into the first scheduled break in play.

Derby’s Jonas Dieterich got the second quarter underway with a two-point jump shot.

Blain matched that with the same for Bradford, but a further two from May-Thompson followed by a trey from Jase Harrison extended Derby’s lead to 31-20.

With just over half of the period played, Jordan Whelan successfully converted a two point layup.

Jordan Whelan helped Bradford gain a foothold in the second quarter, only for that to be quickly snatched away. (Image: Peter Simmons.)

This was then followed by a trey from Joe Buchanan, which reduced the gap to just three points.

But once again the Dragons then suffered a two-and-a-half-minutes points drought, allowing the Trailblazers to pull their advantage back to 45-33.

Buchanan finally broke the barren spell with another trey and although the Dragons sparred, blow for blow, in the final stages of the half, it was Derby that took a 50-39 lead back to the locker rooms at half time.

The Dragons have regularly fought back in the second half of games this season to overcome these kind of deficits, but it was Derby that came out firing in the third quarter.

They added a further five points to their tally before Bradford got going and though Blain and Tordoff pulled the gap back slightly, a couple of treys from Masten saw Derby open up a 61-43 lead.

The two sides continued to trade baskets, but a buzzer beating two-pointer by Derby’s Malcolm Smith gave Derby a massive 75-55 advantage at the end of the penultimate quarter, putting the game virtually out of reach for the Dragons.

To add to the pain, Rob Marsden hit an early two for Derby in the fourth quarter, extending their lead to 22 points.

But, as we have learned, you can never write the Dragons off and they threatened to pull off an extraordinary comeback.

First, Williams sank a two, followed by the same from Blain.

Next, it was Rihards Sulcs with a two-point lay-up, then Blain added a three, as did Buchanan,

Sulcs backed that trio of scores up with a lay-up and remarkably, while all this was going on, a rattled Derby side failed to add a single point to the board.

May-Thompson broke their drought with a two, but this was followed by another trey from Buchanan.

Remarkably, the gap was now down to just seven points and, with more than five minutes still on the clock, the Bradford supporters dared to dream once again, at only 79-72 behind.

But Derby regained their composure and showed their class, as Bradford only added a further two points before the final buzzer, their opponents streaking clear again to win 89-74.

Blain top scored for the Dragons with 21 points, followed by Buchanan (15 points) and Margai (12 points).

Defensively, Zion Tordoff led the line, collecting a total of 13 rebounds.

Zion Tordoff tried his best defensively and did well, but the class of Derby's attack came to the fore in the end. (Image: Peter Simmons.)

At the other end, Jonas Dieterich hit a game high 25 points, whilst his teammate, Sam Masten picked up the Most Valuable Player Award, with 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Reflecting on the game, Mellor said: “We dug ourselves a 20-point hole and we got ourselves out of it to seven points with five minutes to go.

“But credit to them, they shot the ball better than us, making 13 from 23 from three-point range compared to our 13 from 40.

“We’re a three-point shooting team but 40 is too many for us to be taking. Their defence forced us into it but we should have played more on the inside.

“I’m really proud of what we achieved in the Trophy – hopefully we can now get to the play-off final in the league.”

The Dragons now face a gruelling league double-header weekend with games at Barking Abbey tomorrow (4pm) and Nottingham Hoods on Sunday (3pm).

Bradford will be hoping to secure their berth in the end of season, eight team playoffs over the course of these two games.