Carnegie Dish Up A Double Delight To Open 2014

Saturday’s game saw Carnegie take on high flying Essex Leopards in Division One action. As expected the game was a close affair with both team’s looking to start the year off on the right note.

Leopards got off to the better start as they look to dominate the interior on both ends of the floor; this enabled them to open up a 5 point lead by the end of the first period.

Carnegie regrouped and locked down their defensive end in the second quarter limiting Essex to just 11 points and bringing the game back to a 44-44 score line by the half time break.

Carnegie continued their defensive effort whilst also finding their range from the perimeter in the third period and were able to open up a 3 points lead to take into the final quarter.

However Carnegie were only able to seal the 64-61 win in the closing moments on the back of some impressive offensive rebounding from Graham-Bell and Anebo followed up by some composure at the free throw line.

Leeds scoring was led by Branimir Mikulic with 20 points whilst Howard Crawford led all scorers for Essex with 22 points. This win has kept Carnegie in the fight for the league title with several other results around the league also going in their favour.

Sunday’s game was Leeds final National Trophy pool game and with the result deciding who they would face in the quarter-finals of the competition.

With both team’s entering their second match of the weekend the game started slowly as Carnegie looked to limit Newham’s scoring opportunities.

Leeds were able to open up a narrow 3 point lead by the end of the first period. Both teams continued to struggle offensively in the second quarter with Newham having slightly the better of the action reducing the gap down to 2 points by half time.

Carnegie came out in the third period more focused on their offensive production and this paid off as they started to take control of the game.

Their lead extended out to 6 points with 10 minutes left on the game clock.

The final period was more one sided, as Carnegie calmly cruised to a 75-60 win on the back of an impressive 23 points from Captain Jack Stannard assisted by 19 points from Branimir Mikulic.

Newham were led by former Leeds standout David Ajumobi with 23 points.

This win sees Carnegie face Worthing Thunder in the quarter-finals of the National Trophy. The game is set to take place at the Leeds Metropolitan University Sports Arena with the date yet to be confirmed but will be later in January.

Leeds will now prepare for next weekend when they will travel North to face Team Northumbria in a key Division One clash.

Story – Leeds Carnegie