Nieva and Round lead Thunder fightback
BASKETBALL - Northants v Derby @ Northants Basketball Centre at Northampton School for Girls in Spinney Hill Road, Northampton.
This Under 13 Boys Midland South Conference win virtually assures Thunder of a play-off place, and one more win should be enough to earn them a home game in the first round.
On Saturday they faced a much improved Reading Rockets team, who thanks to their offensive patience led 26-18 at half-time.
Thunder seemed to be adversely affected by the absence through injury of leading scorer Jacob Round and a shock defeat looked to be on the cards.
Coach Mike Round switched his team to a full court man-to-man defence and the pressure on the Reading guards forced them to ‘cough’ the ball up on a number of occasions leading to easy scores.
The pressure was led by David Nieva and Sarah Round who is allowed to play in the boy’s league because there is no under 13 girls league. Thunder took the third quarter by 29 points to four and proceeded to take the fourth quarter 19-12 to record an important win.
Nieva and Sarah Round enjoyed excellent games scoring 31 and 22 points respectively.
Reading Rockets 42
Northants Thunder 66
Northants Thunder 51
Manchester Magic 77
Earlier in the season, Thunder suffered an embarrassing 50-plus points defeat against Manchester Magic.
On paper then, the 26-point defeat to the Junior Men Premier Division North leaders at the Basketball Centre last Saturday would look to be a reasonable achievement, but the disappointment on the faces of the Thunder at the conclusion of the game showed that the team had greater expectations.
They were also disappointed because with the exception of two three-minute spells they had played Magic close. During those two spells in the third period and at the end of the game they were outscored 26-2 and therein lay the story of the loss.
Garnet Walters top scored with 12 points while Piers Toone backed him up with 10.
The team now faces a series of important games which they must win to retain any hope of making the end of season play-offs.
Kings Lynn Nets 68
Northants Thunder II 73
Thunder II fielded a strong team for this Peterborough Central Venue League fixture against reigning champions Kings Lynn Nets.
The team made the short journey home with a five-point win but only after a tremendous battle.
They took the final period 20-14 to clinch the victory in which Garnet Walters, Sam Round and Piers Toone all scored in double figures
Northants Thunder 75
Leicester Warriors 71
Trailing 32-41 at half-time, Thunder looked to be slipping to defeat against local rivals Leicester Warriors.
When that lead was extended to 12 points early in the third period the game looked up for Thunder but Rob Eddon’s team showed a great deal of determination in outscoring their opponents by 16 points over the remainder of the game to take a well deserved victory.
Josh Elliott led the scoring with 24 points, well supported by Sam Round with 20 points, while younger brother Josh was just short of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Wellingborough Phoenix 75
Northants Thunder 74
COUNTY rivals Wellingborough Phoenix turned around a 13-point half-time deficit to beat Thunder by a single point.
The result was even more remarkable because earlier in the season on their own court the Northants boys had beaten Phoenix by almost 50 points.
In the disappointing loss, only Carlo Nieva and Ed Hall made any significant contributions to the scoring. Nieva netted 44 points including six three-pointers while Hall totalled 17 points.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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