By Ryan Gillham
Durham Wildcats head coach Dave Elderkin has revealed his disappointment at his side’s performance against the Mersey Tigers at the weekend.
Wildcats returned their lowest points total of the season, as they lost 86-56 at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre, making it 23 defeats from 25 games in their debut season in the BBL.
“I was very disappointed with our performance tonight as we showed no urgency from the beginning,” said Elderkin.
“There were other factors in the game that reflected the score line such as we only shot 9% from three, they showed a very strong defensive display and anything we tried to do was matched by their defence so hats off to the Tigers.
“We have recently played very well but just when you think you are making progress we put in a bad performance like that and it is very disappointing.”
After the opening two minutes the visiting Tigers took the lead which they held onto for the whole duration of the game. The Tigers raced into the lead in the first period leading 4-15 in the opening five minutes missing one out of their opening eight shots but the Wildcats, by contrast, were too keen to shoot from downtown and missed all five shots from behind the arc in the opening five.
Eventually, Mike Capocci drained a three pointer for the hosts but the Tigers accelerated on finishing the quarter with a double figure lead, 15-27.
A positive start for the Wildcats in the second period after Mario Flaherty made an AND1 play in the opening 10 seconds, only for the Wildcats to suffer a five minute scoreless spell.
In contrast to the Wildcats, the Tigers scored eight points in that period of time stretching their lead to 18-35. After an impressive performance in the second quarter the Tigers shot a stunning 72% from the field to end the first half 25-49.
In a very slow and lacklustre third quarter for both sides, the Wildcats failed to make any progress in the game as the teams shared only 14 points in eight of the 10 minutes in the period but the Tigers did manage to stretch their lead once again with a flawless defensive performance restricting Durham to only six points in the third quarter as it ended 31-63 heading into the final period.
Mark Elderkin made a big impact when he came off the bench in the final period, making three shots from downtown in the first two minutes narrowing the score to 40-68. At this point it was too little too late for a dramatic comeback even after their valiant effort scoring nearly as many points in the fourth quarter as they did in the previous three.
The Tigers always looked comfortable keeping the gap at 21 points, which was the closest the Wildcats could get before the Tigers closed the night scoring nine points in quick succession topping off a good weekend and helping them in their play-off push as the score line finished 56-86.
M.V.P – Myles Hessen (Mersey Tigers) 20 points and 12 rebounds.
The half time entertainment was performed by local dance school KDANZ putting on a fantastic show for the cameras and the fans. KDANZ use all different types of dance from breaking dancing to cheerleading. Anyone interested in joining KDANZ contact Kay on 07900365892.