Hoods Going Well So Far

Vladan Dragosavac’s Nottingham Hoods find themselves amongst the early season front-runners in the new-look, British Championship Basketball standings.

Two wins, and an agonising, three-point loss in week two, sees the Hoods holding joint-second (fifth place) alongside Newcastle Knights and Derby Trailblazers, ahead of this coming weekend’s East Midlands clash, away to the latter.

In their last outing, the Hoods were led by, amongst others, former All-Star Point Guard, Wingate University Bulldogs’ Donnell Nixon II (pictured against Hemel Storm) – Nixon has also been named the Hoods’ Player of the Month for October.

Nixon, who has also had a season in Spain, joined the Hoods this past summer from Cordoba CB and is now forming a devastating partnership with Tyrone Williams (top-scored against the Storm); Nixon’s performance in his last outing saw him placed in the BCB Team of the Week.

It’s the first time this campaign a Hoods player has been placed in the BCB Team of the Week, Nixon being named alongside that od Victor Olarerin (Reading Rockets), Nicolas Lewis (Yorkshire Dragons), AJ Roberts (London Cavaliers), and Corey Johnson (Yorkshire Dragons).

Back to the on-court action meanwhile and, following their opening day win against Loughborough Riders, the Hoods came up agonisingly short in an 87-84 loss to Birmingham Rockets, who alongside Yorkshire Dragons will contest the BCB Trophy final.

Down by three points at half-time, the Hoods left themselves with a little too much to do in the fourth quarter, having trailed by ten at the end of the third; but they tried, captain Elliot Bailey top-scoring for the Hoods with 24pts, 6rebs, 1ast.

Bailey was joined on the scoring charts by Tyrone Williams’ 13pts, 4rebs, 4ast, Donell Nixon IIs 13pts, 7rebs, 5ast, and coming off the bench was Latrell Maitland with 15pts of his own; replying for the Rockets meanwhile was Ronald Blain with 20pts 8rebs, 4ast, Zack Powell with 16pts, 3rebs, 3ast, and Eric Donaldson with 18pts, 8rebs, 2ast.

Luke Okosieme added 13pts, 8rebs, 2ast and it was he that regained the Rockets’ lead with around twenty seconds of game-time remaining, after Williams had tied the game at 84s; Lucas McGregor proving the match-winner with ten seconds left.

Dusting themselves off, the Hoods returned to Harvey Hadden to face Hemel Storm in their last outing, and proceeded to put on a basketball clinic, winning by ten, with a dominant, first half showing.

Leading by fifteen points at half-time, the Hoods gave the visiting Storm the proverbial mountain to climb, to which they never got close to ascending as Tyrone Williams and Donell Nixon II both hit 20-plus points for the free-scoring hosts.

Williams would top-score in the victory over Storm, registering 26pts, 6rebs, 5ast, to which he said after the win: “Shout-out to the team, the coaches, the staff, the hard work they’ve put in all week to prepare for this.

“We played against a great team……..(had to) thank the fans, thank the supporters, everybody that came, that was a part of this win, and shout-out to the person behind this camera, you all know he’s put in a lot of work man, appreciate you.”

Alongside Williams’ work, and words, was Nixon’s 20pts, 5rebs, 8ast, as well as double figures for Bailey with 15pts, 4rebs, 1ast, and Megrim Sokoli with 12pts, 5rebs, 1ast; replying for the Storm was Taylor Johnson with 26pts, 7rebs, 1ast, Matt Norman with 12pts, 3rebs, 2ast, and Darien Nelson-Henry 10pts, 6rebs, 2ast.

The Hoods now go on a run of three road-trips from their next four outings, against Derby Trailblazers (A, 1 November), MK Breakers (H, 7 November), Yorkshire Dragons (A, 15 November), and London Cavaliers (A, 22 November).

With the Hoods one of three sides sitting on four points, they are just two off the trio of joint-leaders in Reading Rockets, Worthing Thunder, and London Cavaliers, the latter having played a game more than those around them.

As for the BCB Trophy, the semi-finals have now been contested, with the final to be between Yorkshire Dragons and Birmingham Rockets, the Dragons having beaten Falkirk Fury 93-77, and the Rockets edging a 79-71 game against the MK Breakers.