Hoods Raring For BCB Playoffs

Vladan Dragosavac and the Nottingham Hoods are ready for some BCB Play-Offs basketball.

A fifth-place finish in the regular season standings has seen the Nottingham Hoods qualify for the inaugural BCB playoff quarterfinals, they being amongst the top eight sides this campaign.

Joining Dragosavac’s side will be league champions, Reading Rockets, runners-up Newcastle Knights, third place Birmingham Rockets, and fourth place Milton Keynes Breakers, who’ll all enjoy home court advantage this coming weekend.

In addition to the top four, and the fifth place Hoods, are London Cavaliers (6), Yorkshire Dragons (7), and the Hoods’ East Midlands rivals, Derby Trailblazers (8), with the Hoods set to face the MK Breakers, at the Bletchley Leisure Centre, this coming Saturday evening.

The resurgence of the Hoods has perhaps best been rubber-stamped in recent weeks by the appearance of at least one player in five of the BCBs last six, Team of the Week rosters, with Bryce Johnson being named in four, including three consecutive (weeks 23-25).

Other Hoods players named in the BCBs Team of the Week have been Tyrone Williams (wk21), Donnell Nixon (wk25), and Abiodun Adedo (wk26), as Dragosavac’s side charged into a top five finish.

Five out of the Hoods’ last seven outings has seen them rack up a triple figure score as well, putting up 101 in each of their last two games, a 101-81 success at MK Breakers, which bodes well for the play-offs, and, in their last outing, a 101-90 home win, this past weekend, against Birmingham Rockets.

That’s two of the four beaten on the last two games of the regular season, the trip to Milton Keynes on 4 April seeing three Hoods players notch 20+ in the points stakes; Donnell Nixon top-scored with 24pts, 4rebs, 10asts, and was joined by Tyrone Williams and Bryce Johnson, they notching 23pts, 4rebs, 3asts, and 22pts, 18rebs, 6asts respectively.

Abiodun Adedo also registered double figures in the win over the Breakers, he posting 10pts, 5rebs, 2asts, in a dominant showing from the visitors; in reply three Breakers players bagged double figures, with Jordan Spencer the pick of the bunch with 22pts, 3rebs, 7asts.

Looking ahead to the play-off quarter-final, and the Breakers’ regular season statistics, three players have broken the 300+ pts registered barrier – Jordan Spencer (388), Dashawn Jackson (354), and Xavier Wilson (331), with a further six players breaking the 100+ pts mark.

As for the last regular season outing for Dragosavac’s side, the 101-90 win at home to third place Birmingham Rockets, five of the Hoods’ star players notched double figures, Adedo warranting his place in the Team of the Week with a top-scoring mark of 27pts, 13rebs, 1ast.

Williams bagged 22pts, 2rebs, 8asts, whilst Johnson (19pts), Nixon (11pts), and Micah Savery-Richards (10pts) added to the show, and added to high-performing regular season for Nottingham’s premier basketball side.

Heading into the play-off quarter-final, seven Hoods players have registered 100+ pts or more during the regular season, with Tyrone Williams (who else) topping the pack having notched 581pts, 137rebs, 139asts, from his 36 games.

As equally impressive is Bryce Johnson’s 395pts, 228rebs, 52asts, and Donell Nixon’s 312pts, 76rebs, 136asts, as the Hoods put up strong markers across the board.

The form guide ahead of this Saturday’s game certainly bodes well for the Hoods as well, currently on a five-game winning streak, and having registered eight wins in their last ten outings, whilst the hosting Breakers have lost both their last two, and five of their last six outings, winning five and losing five from ten.

The two contests between the Hoods and the Breakers this season saw an 81-55 success for the Breakers in Nottingham, and a 101-81 success for the Hoods in Milton Keynes.

Nottingham Hoods face the hosting Milton Keynes Breakers in the BCB Play-Offs this coming Saturday (18 April) at Bletchley Leisure Centre, tip-off set for 17:00.