Nottingham Trent Men’s Basketball 1sts 96-92 Derby Men’s Basketball 1sts: Visitors knocked out of cup by local rivals
Words and image by Alex Wood.
Derby Men’s Basketball 1sts crashed out of the cup against bitter rivals Nottingham Trent Men’s 1sts after losing 96-92 in a hard-fought contest.
The hosts secured the victory with their composure from the free-throw line as they shot 85 per cent. Derby, however, were the exact opposite as they shot a disappointing 40 per cent; with five misses coming in the fourth quarter.
It was the visitors who took control of the game early on as they flew into a 24-17 lead at the end of the first quarter. Ronald Oberia was the star as he scored half of the first-quarter points.
Despite only getting three points, point guard Daniel Garrett managed to register 12 rebounds and four steals.
Nottingham Trent made the game close into going half time as six straight points from four possessions stifled Derby’s potent offensive dominance.
The hosts were buoyed by captain, Luke Juffer, who provided his team with some much-needed help by scoring nine points from beyond the arch.
The chemistry between the skipper and Van Olarien in the second half proved to be useful for the Trent Army as Juffer directly contributed to six of his team-mates’ second-half points.
New Boy, Dingle, also notched 12 second-half points to give the hosts a strong offensive push into the last few minutes.
Derby’s second-half performance will be one to vastly improve on. The visitors missed several layups and denied themselves some easy points in the paint with costly turnovers in both the third and fourth quarters. Despite the room for improvement, the visitors were still up by three points going into the fourth quarter.
Derby increased the tempo going into the fourth quarter with power forward Randy Holmes scoring eight points in the first two minutes.
Trent managed to keep in the game though as Olarien took over and notched 10 points.
The final minute came and the visiting team pushed one last time with the trusted partnership of Holmes and Garrett. Despite their efforts, the shot clock ran out and the hosts crashed out of the Trophy.
Derby will look for revenge in the league repeat of this fixture, with added incentive as the winner will go three points clear at the top of the league.
