Winning Weekend For Hoods
It’s been a tough run this season for the Nottingham Hoods, in the National Basketball League Division One, their ten losses seeing them sitting third bottom in the table.
However, having previously won only twice both back in October, against Worthing Thunder (112-103) and Bradford Dragons (85-84; OT), Vladan Dragosavac’s side have doubled that tally this past weekend, with back-to-back victories.
Both wins, over Derby Trailblazers (81-80) and City of Birmingham Rockets (61-67), were narrow, one-point successes, but a win is a win, and it’s now hoped that this will create some much-needed momentum moving forward.
At the Clarence Wiggins Sports Centre, Derby, on 18 January, the Hoods set out to avenge the hefty, 118-100, loss they suffered against the Trailblazers mere days before Christmas, last year.
Down by three at the end of the first quarter, and losing three of the four quarters overall, the Hoods mustered enough to see them over the line, it including an eleven-point margin in the second, and being squeezed out by one in the third.
Derby’s Malcolm Smith top-scored with 26-points in the game, but that was insufficient as his side were just edged out at the death, American duo, Landon Taliaferro’s 19-points, and Greg Skoric’s 18-points, helping the Hoods home – Elliot Bailey also chipped in with eleven of his own.
A week later, on Sunday gone, the Hoods did the same again, this time edging hosts City of Birmingham Rockets, at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham (the hosts lost both their outings over the weekend).
Despite a 15-point haul from Rockets duo, Samuel Toluwase and Zack Powell, and they winning the last two quarters of a tight contest, the Hoods had done enough, just, early on, to see themselves home and dry.
Registering 24 in the second, and 18 in the fourth quarters, was enough for the Hoods, even though the Rockets chipped away, Bailey again chipping in with an eleven-point score, whilst Taliaferro, and John Murdock Jnr, both notched 17-points each.
After ‘Victory Sunday’ for the Hoods, it’s back home at the Wildcats Arena this coming weekend (1 February) when they welcome second place Reading, for what will, without question, be a tough encounter.
*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).
*Main image @hoodsbasketball Hoods in celebration against Derby.
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