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PATRON'S PREVIEW (POOL 2)

By Dave Ryan, England Basketball

Team Northumbria have one foot in the Patron’s Cup semi-final as they made it three wins from three by beating Birmingham Aston Athletics 91-72.

Sam Attah (right) was again the main man for the Division Two playoff champions, draining 37 points as they built on a storming first quarter which saw them lead 23-4 after ten minutes play.

That lead grew to 51-31 at half-time, but Aston pulled it back with a 27-17 third period to go into the final break trailing 68-58. That proved to be as good as it got for Athletics, and Northumbria ran out comfortable winners. Steutel added 15 for the hosts, while Buchanan finished with 18 for Athletics.

Black Country University of Wolverhampton moved into joint second place with a 61–50 home victory against neighbours University of Birmingham.

Wolves started well, leading by seven points after just two minutes, but the visitors fought back and went into the opening break only trailing 16-15.

Dennis Preware was almost single handedly responsible for the Wolves scoring in the second quarter and half-time arrived with Wolves leading 27-26. Eric Potts took over the scoring mantle in the third period but more importantly aggressive defence shackled the prolific Danny Williams and restricted Andy Blakeway’s inside threat, as Wolves reached the final break 45-40 ahead.

The final period was error strewn with the crowd picking up the on-court tension but the control finally exerted by Nik Fearon and some astute passing and shooting from Robin Hall saw the Wolves home.

Preware and Potts top-scored with 16 points each and have set up the Wolves for a decisive pool game with Northumbria on Sunday. Bastin led Birmingham with 13 points, while Williams added 12.

NEWI Nets’ semi-final hopes ended with a 94-78 home loss against a Tees Valley Mohawks side who moved to joint second spot in the group. Nets led 25-18 at the first break, but a 24-13 second period put Mohawks into a four point half-time lead.

Led by 23 Sully points, Mohawks’ advantage grew to 70-60 at the final break before closing things out in the fourth period. Butler added 22 points for Tees Valley, while Psarris led the Nets with 21.