There was more derby delight for Bradford Dragons as they followed up their National Cup win over Leeds Carnegie with a nail-biting 64-58 league triumph.

Both teams played ferocious team defence from the start as Dragons shaded the first period 22-20 thanks to a buzzer-beating double from Vance Silcott.

Leeds turned the tables on their rivals to lead 32-30 at half-time but, in the third quarter, they struggled to contain Dragons’ 6ft 9in centre Chris McGrew on his way to a game-high 20 points, as Dragons led 46-42.

The outstanding Wilkins pulled Carnegie back into the game with a monster triple and with Dragons missing shots from the charity stripe the game was tied 56 all at the end of normal time.

Dragons denied Carnegie open shots as Dragons won the extra period 8-2 and Carnegie were forced to foul to stop the clock. Silcott and Tom Martin kept their nerve to hit both their fouls shots as Dragons deservedly won 64-58.

Coach Chris Mellor said: “It was another great game. Neither team really made a decent run to put the game to bed but we closed the game out well in overtime, just like last week against Worthing, and it’s good to get a couple of league wins on the board early in the season.”

Dragons are home to Brixton Topcats in EBL Division One on Saturday (6.15pm).

Elsewhere, Dragons 2 won 90-68 at Middlesborough Lions in EBL Division Four, Dragons 3 lost 114-58 to Leeds Demons in Division One of the Leeds League and the Under-18s beat Huddersfield New College 70-61 in the EBL North East Conference.

The Under-16s hung on to win 67-65 against visitors Newcastle Eagles and the Under-14s went down 70-30 to York Vikings and 100-51 to Leeds Tigers.