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Michael

Div 2 Men - Giants produce big win against Warriors
Monday, 11-Jan-2010

By Dave Ryan

Mansfield Giants produced a stunning second half performance against promotion hopefuls Westminster Warriors on Saturday night to take the Division Two points with an 85-76 victory.

Despite the freezing weather which meant that this would be the only Division Two fixture of the weekend, the Warriors made the journey from London to try and maintain their push for the title.

The fourth-placed Giants, sitting on five wins and three losses, knew that they would need to be at their best, or close to it, in order to beat the second-placed Warriors who had previously won 6 of their seven league encounters.

Mathew Martin made his first start since his transfer from Sheffield Arrows, in place of Paul Kelly who was overseas, alongside Dan Richards, Michal Ciesla, Dan Watts and Ben Coy.

It was the hosts who made the brighter start on the back of three treys from Ciesla and Watts to take an early 10-4 lead, but veteran Warrior Marvin Addy personally made sure that the visitors kept in touch with Mansfield by scoring eight points personal in the first quarter.

The Giants ended up shading the first quarter 18-15 and the sides traded baskets at the start of the second before a two minute spell saw the visitors go on a 9-0 run to open up a six point lead at 28-22 . Dave Passmore - playing his first game of the season - ended that run with a three-point play, closely followed by two quick baskets from Watts, ensuring that the Giants kept within touching distance.

The Giants were not playing with the fluidity that they had started the game with though, and by the 9th minute of the quarter they found themselves down by the largest margin of the game at 10 points, with the scores 45-35 courtesy of a combined 12 points from Henry Wilkins and Yannick Bulambwe. Two Watts free-throws narrowed the gap slightly and Mansfield trailed by eight going into the locker room.

When the Giants took to the floor in the second half they looked a different team. Back came the swarming defence evident in the first quarter, forcing Westminster to put up rushed or poor shots, and back to back treys from Watts and Martin to open the second half scoring at the other end brought the Giants to within two points.

The run was not finished there though and Mansfield held their opponents scoreless for the first 4 and a half minutes of the third quarter, extending the run to 14-0 to lead 51-45.

Westminster rallied slightly by holding the Giants scoreless themselves for the next three minutes. They failed to take full advantage, however, as despite tying the game at 51 Addy missed all six of his free throw attempts in the spell.

Dave Passmore

Conversions from Richards, Passmore and Ciesla sandwiched a basket from the Warriors player/coach Junior Williams to see out the quarter, which Mansfield took 20-8 and held a 57-53 lead entering the final stanza.

Again the Warriors fought back at the start of the fourth, showing the fight which had seen them lose only once in the league all season and scored the first eight points of the final quarter. The Giants were not to be outdone though, as they looked fresher than their opponents and two Richards free throws and Martin's second three of the game saw Mansfield retake the lead by a single point.

A 9-3 mini-run from Westminster was to be their last big push, as when Passmore scored his ninth and final point in the fifth minute of the quarter, it gave Mansfield a lead that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

Mike Elland hit a huge three giving the Giants a six point lead before Junior Williams replied with two free throws to reduce the margin to four points. Watts and Elland combined to score the next four points and with the score at 79-71 with little over two minutes to go it appeared the game might be over.

Ben Coy

Westminster did not think so, however, and Addy nailed a trey before missing another two free throws, and Wilkins hit a jump shot for two more points and with just over a minute to go the lead was back down to three points.

Intense defence over the next few possessions, including Watts blocking a dunk attempt by Bulambwe, saw the Giants stop the visitors from scoring another point in the game. At the other end a Richards steal and lay up and Ciesla with four points made sure the points were only going one way and the Giants took the win.

GIANTS SCORERS: Ciesla 23, Richards 15, Watts 12, Martin 11, Elland 9, Passmore 9, Griffiths 2, Coy 2, Hussain 2. Williams led the Warriors with 20 with Addy the only other Westminster player in double figures with 11.

Artykuł z oficjalnej strony England Basketball
[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

z ciekawostek...
1. W końcu do łask powrócił Dave Passmore - nasz najwyższy zawodnik... Prawdziwa Bestia... (Na zdjęciu wyżej).. rozegrał bardzo dobry mecz - 12 min. 9 punktów 7 zbiórek!!!
2. Kryłem rozgrywającego.. czyli jak zwykle... ale najfajniejszy fakt to, że jest to były gracz kadry Anglii Smile

Naprawdę bardzo dobry, mądry zawodnik..

Jednak liczy się zwycięstwo:

Tabela

Tom

Jasna cholera, jesteście na 4 miejscu...
chyba nie damy rady was dogonić...

Michael

:)

no Ogór walcz tam walcz Wink

powodzenia i pozdro !!!

Tom

Michael

Giants up pressure after latest victory

Published Date: 20 January 2010
By Steve Baxter
MANSFIELD Giants secured their third straight league win, 103-84 over Plymouth, to keep within touching distance of the Division Two league leaders.
The Giants went into the game against second bottom Plymouth Marjon, who had won just one of their eight league games, without the services of their three best players due to injury or illness.

Centre Ben Coy was ruled out, meaning point guard Tom Griffith was promoted to the starting line up with the Giants opting for a smaller, quicker, line up alongside Dan Richards, Michal Ciesla, Dan Watts and Mathew Martin.

Mansfield started well and scored freely on offence.

But defensively the intensity was nowhere near as high as it should have been and Plymouth were able reply at the other end.

Coach Dan Richards scored 10 of his 15 points in the period as Plymouth struggled to contain his combination of outside shooting and drives to the basket.

At the other end of the court it was stand-in coach Matt Peard who was giving the Giants most problems, scoring nine of his team high 16 points.

It was Mansfield who held the advantage when the buzzer signalled the end to the quarter with a four point lead at 26-22.

Michal Ciesla scored the first five points to start the second quarter to open up a nine point gap as the Giants threatened to pull away.

But Mansfield again switched off mentally and 10 unanswered points saw the visitors edge ahead 32-31.

Mansfield took a timeout to re-focus their thoughts and, when Mathew Martin drove the lane and laid the ball in after the restart, the Giants regained a lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the game.

After this it was the turn of Ciesla to take the game to Plymouth with 10 of the Giants' next 15 points.

Plymouth did manage to hold the Giants scoreless for the final two minutes of the half, but only managed three free throws in reply as they trailed 55-43 at the break.

If the second quarter belonged to Ciesla, then the third belonged to Martin.

He blitzed his way to 12 points, including two three pointers in a little under five minutes.

Assisted by seven points from Dan Watts and four from Tom Griffiths the unstoppable Giants opened up a 20 point lead to end any realistic thoughts Plymouth might have held of winning the game.

The fourth quarter was a largely eventless affair as the clock ticked down to the inevitable home win.

At one point the massive lead grew to 31 points, before Plymouth cut the lead back down to 19 points after scoring the last 12 points of the contest.

The win means Mansfield remain in fourth place with seven wins and three defeats closely behind Brixton, Durham, and Westminster who have all lost two games.

GIANTS SCORERS: Ciesla 27, Martin 21, Watts 15, Richards 15, Kelly 13, Griffiths 5, Elland 5, White 2

Tom

Świetnie, gratulacje! No to Premier League blisko!

Michael

Morton's magic ends comeback

Published Date: 03 February 2010
MANSFIELD Giants men's hopes of beating league favourites Durham Wildcats were shattered in a thrilling game on Saturday night as the Giants went down 87-78.
But it took two splendid late threes from Scott Morton to halt a late fightback from Mansfield.

The game was always going to be tough as the Giants were still without the injured duo of Eric Milambo and Ben Coy, who didn't recover from their injuries, while point guard To Griffiths was unavailable.

Things started brightly for the Giants as the Wildcats struggled with the home side's defensive intensity and Giants won the first quarter 15-13.

The second quarter saw the Wildcats drop into a zone which the Giants struggled to break initially, but were only trailing by just three points until American Scott Morton scored a buzzer beater three point shot to give the visitors a 41-35 half-time lead.

The third quarter saw the game become increasingly physical. The Wildcats started hitting from outside, but the Giants kept right on their heels trailing 60-54 going into the final quarter.

Wildcats then started to tire, and the Giants stepped up their intensity, cutting the deficit down to only four points with two minutes left.

However, just as the Giants were looking to control the game, Scott Morton scored two massive threes to put the nail in the coffin grinding out a 87-79 win.

Head coach Dan Richards said: "I think we played as well as we could have today without three key players.

"I believe we did enough to win the game but a few easy lay-ups were missed and a couple of lapses in concentration cost us the game.
"Against quality teams like Durham you just cannot afford to make these mistakes as they took full advantage."

The Giants have a big double header weekend coming up with a home game on Saturday against ever-improving Medway Park Crusaders while on Sunday the team travel away to play Westminster Warriors in the Patrons Cup semi-final.

Aktualna tabela:

Liderzy ligi:

Niestety porazka.. Bardzo dobry poziom widowiska.. Mysle ze Druham jest najlepsza druzyna obecnie w lidze.. I po zwyciestwie nad nami powrocili na miejsce lidera ligi... Maja dosc wyrownany sklad.. 2 grekow, amerykanin, i calkiem niezle grajacy caly zespol..

Co pechowego? gralismy mecz z jednym wysokim Dave Passmore.. Nadal Eric i Ben Coy sa kontuzjowani...

Co pozytywnego? mimo porazki druzyna bardzo szybko zebrala sie w sobie i zaczelismy trenowac jeszcze ciezej (choc wydawaloby sie to niemozliwe) i naprawde czuje sie atmosfere w teamie...

Michael

Giants exit Patrons Cup after Warriors woes

Published Date: 10 February 2010
MANSFIELD Giants' hopes of reaching the Patrons Cup final were shattered on Sunday as they went down 88-77 to the Westminster Warriors.
Giants had gone into the clash in high spirits after a superb fightback saw them beat the Medway Park Crusaders 74-72 to keep up the pressure on the league leaders.

The Giants injury crisis worsened as player coach Dan Richards suffered from a twisted ankle in training and looked set to miss the crucial games, though he managed to suit up and give the team a few minutes in both games.

Big men Ben Coy and Eric Milambo, again missed the weekend due to their respective injuries.

Saturday's game against Medway Park Crusaders started slow for the Giants, who conceded 20 points in the first quarter.

The Giants struggled to contain the Crusaders and allowed far too many uncontested shots, going down 20-17.

The second quarter saw the giants start to get into some offensive rhythm, but they were still not playing with the intensity we are used to seeing allowing the Crusaders to open up a 42-34 half time lead.

But just when the game seemed to be slipping away from the Giants, Dan Richards stepped onto the court for the first time to inject some defensive intensity into the team.

The team really started to step up and closed the gap to just five points going into the fourth quarter.

The Giants then went on a run and opened up a five point lead until Harris nailed a big three pointer to bring the Crusaders back into the game.

With just 36 seconds left the game was tied. Harris had two free throws but bottled both as the Giants crowd did their best to put him off.

Michael Ciesla then scored a tough drive to gain a slender two point advantage, which was enough to win 74-72.

TOP SCORERS: Watts 26, Passmore, 15, Ciesla 10.

Sunday's semi final was always going to be a huge task against the Warriors.

Not only did the Giants have three key players injured, but big man Dave Passmore was also unavailable for the game due to work commitments.

The Giants had a terrible first quarter, lacking any kind of defensive pressure and confidence offensively to give up a massive 39-11 lead to the Warriors.

The Giants now had a mountain to climb to win this game and there was to be no dramatic comeback.

The second quarter was slightly better as the Giants started to improve defensively, but they still struggled to contain the Warriors and went into the half time break losing 56-25.

The Giants were a totally different team after half time and started well.

The defensive pressure was outstanding and caused all kinds of problems for the home side, slashing the lead to just 16 points.

A Westminster timeout was called to stop the Giants in their stride, which worked well as the Warriors settled to eventually grind out an 88-77 win as the Giants ran out of time.

The Warriors will now face Durham Wildcats in the final.

SCORERS: Watts, Martin 17, Ciesla 9.

Sobotnie zwyciestwo w lidze w ostatnich sekundach... przy tym ze w pewnym momencie przegrywalismy dosc znaczaco... Po raz kolejny pokazalismy Waleczne Serca... mysle ze jestesmy jedna z najlepiej kondycyjnie przygotowanych druzyn w lidze.. takze szybkosciowo jest calkiem niezle.. i w ten sposob nadrabiamy różnice wzrostowe.. bo w porównianiu do wiekszości drużyn jestesmy hobbitami.. mimo tego ze nazwa klubu to Giants.. Smile ale pewnie chodzi tutaj o gigantyczna wole walki i chec zwyciestwa...

W niedziele w Londynie zagralismy półfinał pucharu ligi.. niestety to co sie dzialo w pierwszej kwarcie rzutowalo juz na caly dalszy mecz.. Druzyna gospodarzy ze wszytkich oddanych rzutów pomylila sie moze z 2 razy przegrywalismy po pierwszej kwarcie 39-11... pozostale kwarty nalezaly juz do nas.. niestety braklo czasu.. mecz zakonczyl sie przegrana 11 puntkami i odpadnieciem z pucharu... Na pewno nie zasluzylismy nasza gra na awans do finalu.. a w nim spotkaja sie zdecydowanie 2 najlepsze druzyny... Smile mysle ze polfinal to i tak fantastyczny rezultat dla nas.. Smile

W ten weekend znowu gramy 2 mecze tym razem beda to tylko spotkania ligowe... Trzymacie kciuki bo potrzebujemy obu zwyciestw...

Tom

Trzymamy wszystkie kciuki za "Hobbity - Giganty" z Mansfield.
Pozdrowionka

Michael

Brum win keeps Giants on course

Published Date: 16 February 2010
MANSFIELD Giants' men maintained their National Basketball League Division Two play-offs push with a 78-62 home win over University of Birmingham on Sunday as they bounced straight back from Saturday's 83-66 defeat at Birmingham A's.
It is now hotting up with six league games remaining and a tough trip to second placed Brixton Topcats ahead this Sunday (4pm).

Giants went into last weekend again without the services of their inside triumvirate of Ben Coy, Eric Milambo and Dave Passmore through injury and work commitments respectively.

And it was always going to be a tough task against the bigger and stronger Birmingham A's.

Surprisingly the A's had lost six in a row and slipped to eighth in the table prior to this encounter.

Their run of bad form was going to end sooner or later and the short-handed Giants were largely powerless to stop it happening against them.

Talented youngster Myles Hesson, who did so much damage to the Giants in their home loss, opened the scoring with two free throws in the first minute to give Birmingham a lead they would not relinquish the whole match.

The Giants, and particularly Dan Watts and Mathew Martin, battled valiantly against the boards but the A's repeatedly had two or three attempts down the court as they used their superior height advantage to good effect.

Birmingham steadily nurtured their lead and when the first quarter came to a halt they had a nine point advantage, having taken the period 23-14.

The Giants did put up a more spirited fight on the offensive end in the second quarter, with Martin scoring nine points. But Birmingham were still able to extend their lead slightly and went into the half-time break 47-34 to the good.

Any lingering hopes the Giants maintained of winning the game were quickly dashed as the A's restricted Mansfield to only four points in the first five minutes of the third quarter, whilst Birmingham extended their lead to 20.

A hat-trick of three-pointers completed Birmingham's scoring in the period which ended 75-50 to the hosts.

While the game was effectively over as a contest Mansfield still had pride to play for and did manage to shave eight points off the deficit by taking the final period 16-8.

The good thing for the Giants about having a fixture the next day was it gave them an immediate chance to erase some of the pain of the previous day's defeat.

It was against a rapidly improving University of Birmingham who had won two out of their last four, including a midweek win over the team which beat Mansfield comfortably on Saturday, and had run favourites Durham close the previous night.

There was to be no slow start for the Giants this time as they shot out of the blocks.

Mansfield scored the first 14 points of the game, with Martin contributing seven and Watts four as they held Birmingham scoreless for the first five minutes.

Jake Barr finally broke the drought for the visitors, but when Watts, who was rebounding outstandingly under his own basket, scored the last five points of the quarter, Mansfield were leading 21-6.

The Giants were in no mood to let their opponents have a sniff of getting back into the game and point guard Tom Griffiths and Paul Kelly quickly extended the lead at the start of the second period before Mathew Martin scored the next eight Giants points.

It was high octane basketball from Mansfield, who were moving the ball around as well as they had all season.

Mike Elland was next to go on a personal mini scoring run as he added seven straight points, including two fast breaks lay-ups, triggered by excellent Dan Watts' outlet passes.

Rookie Sheraz Hussain rounded off the scoring as he left the bench to net the final four points of the quarter.

Whatever Pete Mintoff said to his Birmingham team at half-time seemed to do the trick as they came out on fire in the second half.

The University side scored 10 straight points which included two Jake Barr three-point attempts.

A Giants time-out was swiftly called and it appeared to do the trick as Martin hit a three-pointer on the resumption of play.

It was to prove short-lived, however, as both teams then failed to trouble the scorekeepers for the next three minutes.

The third quarter was to end as the first quarter began, with some of the best basketball of the night.

Mansfield went on a 19-2 run with six different scorers, all of which meant they held a huge 29 point margin, going into the final quarter 67-36 ahead.

Michal Ciesla gave the home team their biggest margin of the night, at 32 points, in the third minute of the final period as he converted a three-point play, but after that Mansfield somewhat switched off effort wise.

So the student visitors, with the shackles removed, found more space to shoot and outscored Mansfield 26-11 in the final quarter, making the final margin a lot closer than it could have been.

Scorers against Birmingham A's: Watts 19, Martin 19, Ciesla 13, Elland 6, Richards 6, Kelly 3.

Scorers against Birmingham Uni: Martin 21, Watts 15, Ciesla 14, Elland 13, Richards 6, Hussain 4, Griffiths 3, Kelly 2.

Niestety sobotnia porazka z dosc niewygodnym przeciwnikiem... Juz drugi raz w tym sezonie nie mozemy sobie z nimi poradzic.. Sad

bardzo truny mecz... szybko obnazyly nasze braki... gdybysmy wygrali oba mecze a nie tylko jeden zajmowalibysmy obecnie 3 miejsce w tabeli.. jednak ze doznalismy porazki w sobote jestesmy na 5 miejscu...
Ostatnio sporo grywam na rozegraniu, W niedzielnym meczu nawet zaliczyłem 5 asyst Wink

i jest to mój rekord w tej lidze.. Smile

Michael · Wysłany: Czw 13:27, 04 Mar 2010 Temat postu:

Crucial win for Giants

Published Date: 03 March 2010
By Steve Baxter
Mansfield Giants' men strengthened their grip on a top four placing with an 88-83 win over Team Northumbria on Saturday in their penultimate home game of the season.
Whilst the game always appeared to be going the way of the Giants, a spirited finish from Northumbria made for a few twitchy moments at the end.

It was the Giants who started the game the brighter with the impressive Mathew Martin putting the first points on the scoreboard.

Martin started the game alongside Dan Watts, Paul Kelly, Tom Griffiths and Michal Ciesla as Mansfield opted to go with a smaller, quicker line-up than in recent matches.

Both teams failed to establish a grip in the first period though, and when the buzzer sounded it was the visitors who held what was to be their only lead of the game by the narrow margin of 17-16.

The second quarter was an equally close affair and every time Mansfield threatened to open up a gap Northumbria, who were superbly marshalled by Welsh international Chris Pearce, pegged the Giants back.

Mansfield did do enough to take a two point lead into the locker room at the half though and must have been confident of going on to take their third win of the season against their north-east opponents.

At the half the scores showed Mansfield 36, Northumbria 34.

Whatever was said at half time certainly hit the mark for Mansfield as they clicked up a gear in the third quarter.

The gap at the final break had been stretched to 13 points at 63-50 which prompted Northumbria player-coach Greg Modzelewski to introduce himself into the action.

Modzelewski is a wily veteran who certainly knows how to wind his opponents up.

His off-the-ball antics soon started to get under the skin of numerous Giants players and his disruption tactics were going to plan.

It also got to Giants' sideline coach Steve Baxter who was called for a technical foul for his remonstrations towards an official after a series of bizarre referring decisions went against the home team.

All the while Northumbria were slowly chipping away at the lead and an 11-2 run reduced their deficit to only six points with little over five minutes remaining.

After being so tight at the defensive end in the first three quarters Mansfield released the shackles to allow Northumbria to score 33 points in the final quarter.

Time and time again, poor boxing out from the Giants meant the visitors snatched the offensive rebound and got another look at the basket.

Luckily Northumbria only connected with five of their 33 attempts from the three-point line, otherwise the result could easily have swung the other way.

It was at the free throw line that the Giants secured victory, with 13 of their last 17 points coming from the charity stripe, and if they had not missed nine more free throws in this time the final margin could have been a lot healthier.

Mathew Martin was unstoppable as he led the Giants with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

Pole Michal Ciesla continued his recent streak of creating easy chances for his team-mates with 13 points and 6 assists and Dave Passmore with 11 points was simply too strong for his opponents close to the basket.

The manner of the victory meant little in the end.

What was important was that they won.

This weekend the Giants visit Edmonton who sit directly above them in third place.

It is a crunch game as both teams have lost five games, but Edmonton have played a game more than Mansfield.

Giants scorers: Martin 27 (11reb), Ciesla 12 (6as, 5reb, 2st), Passmore 11 (6reb) , Elland 11, Watts 8 (9reb, 3as, 2st), Kelly 7, Richards 7 (3st, 2as), Griffiths 5 (2as, 2st).

W sobote mecz w Londynie vs. Edmonton... Jeśli wygramy znajdziemy sie na 3 miejscu w tabeli z szansami na 2.. Jesli przegramy niestety pozostanie mam walka o miejsca 4-5 przed fazą play offs.

dla jasnosci
reb = zbiórki
as = asysty
st = przechwyty

Michael · Wysłany: Wto 0:00, 09 Mar 2010 Temat postu:

Giants secure stunning win to strength grip on top 4 place.

Mansfield Giants produced the goods when it mattered on Saturday night as they travelled to north London in a crunch game in the race for a top 4 playoff spot.

Despite only taking 8 players due to injury, work and private commitments it made no difference as the visitors took the honours in a 100 to 106 shootout.

The first quarter was a close fought affair, but their cause was not helped by forward Dan Watts picking up 2 early fouls. It didn’t dampen Mansfield’s efforts though as both teams traded baskets throughout.

Giants leading scorer Michal Cielsa and guard Paul Kelly caused the most damage to Edmonton as they combined for 18 first quarter points. There was also a welcome return to big man Eric Milambo who had been absent since badly injuring his ankle against the same opponents before Christmas.

Despite the Giants scoring 26 first quarter points they were unable to stop Edmonton from scoring at the other end and they scored 25 themselves to leave the game finely poised going into the 2nd quarter.

Mathew Martin and Ciesla scored the first 6 points of the 2nd quarter to open up a small gap but this was quickly rescinded as John MacCauley and Mansour Mbye scored the next 6 points for the Storm. The remainder of the quarter was a back and forth event with no team able to establish a real grip on the game. Mathew Martin was the main protagonist for Mansfield as he continued his recent rich scoring vein with 8 of Mansfield’s 23 points in the period. The Giants had no answer to Edmonton captain Tayo Odulaja who had 11 in the quarter which led his team to a half time advantage of 50-49.

Their was real belief amongst the Giants camp at half time that if they could find it in themselves to somehow slow Edmonton’s scoring they could maintain their offensive production and take a win that few of the sparse crowd would have predicted before the game.

It did not quite play itself out like that. Mansfield’s defence was probably the best they played all game but Edmonton still scored 20 points in the quarter. Tellingly though the Storm went away from their team basketball and decided to try and win the game individually. The Giants reply was to score 30 points themselves. What a time it was to produce some of their best passing basketball of the season. Mansfield picked apart the Edmonton zone defence on what felt like every occasion down the floor. The 3rd period ended with Mansfield leading by 9 with the scores 70-79. One downside for the Giants was that Paul Kelly, who had contributed 13 points at that stage, fouled out reducing the wafer thin squad to only 7 players.

The Giants held their opponents to only 3 points in the first 3 minutes of the final period and Ciesla’s 5th 3 pointer of the game stretched the lead out to 13. Edmonton did score 4 points in reply before an event which hugely affected the game.
Edmonton captain Tayo Odulaja decided to remonstrate with one of the officials over a no-call which he felt was a foul. His inquisitive protests were deemed too strong and he was issued with a technical foul, quickly followed by a second.

This meant that that the Giants went to the free throw line four times and would retain possession of the ball. Martin made 2 of the first 3 attempts before Odulaja decided he still had something to say. The result, a 3rd technical foul which was his 5th personal foul and he was promptly ejected from the game. The game was then held up for a number of minutes as Odulaja ludicrously refused to leave the court and allow the game to continue.

When he finally did leave the Edmonton Coach was issued with a technical foul for delay of game and Martin was to return to the line for a further 5 free shots. Martin ended up making 5 of the 8 attempts and when Dan Watts nailed a 3 on the resulting possession the lead had risen to 17 points with 5 minutes remaining.

The ejection of their captain seemed to galvanise Edmonton and disrupt the Giants. Milambo fouled out as he was curiously called for flopping after being what appeared to be a blatant elbow in the chest and the Storm went on a 17-3 run to leave themselves down by only 5 points with 2 minutes remaining.

Edmonton had to result to fouling to stop the game clock in the final minutes and Ciesla and Dan Richards iced the game from the line to take a hugely satisfying 100 – 106 victory.

Assistant Coach Steve Baxter commented ‘This was a huge result for us and we have now won 8 of our last 10 games. This is the stage of the season where we need to be playing at our best. The heart these guys showed to me today really made me proud. Edmonton has as much, if not more, individual talent as any team in the league. Michal (Ciesla) showed us again today he is a top class player. Lately we have asked him to take on a slightly different role which involves getting other players more involved and he stepped up to that. Today we needed him to score and he got 30’.
He added ‘Mathew Martin has averaged nearly 19 points a game since he earned himself a starting 5 spot and is looking really explosive going to the basket. Eric (Milambo) showed why we rate him so highly as he came back from nearly 10 weeks out to play superbly. Almost as pleasing as all of those performances though, were the cameo roles of Arron White and Sheraz Hussain. Arron finished the game out and scored an important long range basket and Sheraz, despite missing a long range 3, got his confidence back with a nice move to the basket. And then there is Dan Richards. He is our leader and epitome of dependability. He is playing out of position and has been injured but he is there for us and does whatever it takes to get the win.’

Giants Scorers: Ciesla 30, Martin 24, Milambo 16, Kelly 13, Watts 12, Richards 7, White 2, Hussain 2.

The win moves Mansfield ahead of Edmonton into 3rd place with only 4 league games remaining. This Saturday sees the Giants play their final league game of the season at home to Welsh team Glyndwr Nets at 6pm at Oaktree Leisure Centre.

Glyndwr currently sit 6th in the league and are battling for their playoff position so it promises to be a pulsating encounter. The Giants would urge anyone who wants to witness an evening’s entertainment at unrivalled value for money to print out this email and show on entry to gain reduced price admission and come along and provide some much welcomed support. (price: adults £2.50, under 16's £1.50 with this email).

Mecz na szczycie... O 3 miejsce w tabeli... i ciagle realne szanse na awans do 1 ligi!! Duzo emocji.. Fantastyczna gra, super skutecznosc obu druzyn... Jak dla mnie najlepszy nasz mecz w tym sezonie, mimo ciaglych kontuzji druzyny... Podróż z przygodami... Strzeliła opona w busie w drodze powrotnej na motorwayu a okazalo sie ze kola zapasowego brak... Smile

ogolnie niesamowita przygoda .. Przyjechala policja, sluzby drogowe.. Smile

na szczescie wszystko zostalo szybko zalatwione... a my w drodze powrotnej zajechalismy do kolegi w Derby ktory rok temu gral dla Giants i tam mielismy krotka impreze.. Smile

w domu bylismy dosc pozno Smile

:) · Wysłany: Nie 21:25, 14 Mar 2010 Temat postu:

jol Ogór

widze ze dobrze ci idzie,oby tak dalej

pozdro i powodzenia

Michael

Widze, ze bardzo zaniedbalem sie ostatnio nie wstawiajac informacji...

Juz nadrabiam Smile

RED-HOT Mansfield Giants' play-off hopes will now be decided away from home after ending their home fixtures with a ninth league win in 11 attempts in emphatic style last weekend.
After Saturday's 112-56 slaughter of Glyndwr Nets, Mansfield now go on the road for the final three games of the season.

This weekend sees them play fifth-placed Westminster on Saturday before taking on second- placed Brixton on Sunday.

The Giants remain in third place after Saturday's massive 112-56 win over Glyndwr and this weekend will certainly prove a tough test as both Brixton and Westminster will be looking for revenge after narrow losses to the Giants before Christmas.

On paper Saturday looked a tricky match with Glyndwr Nets sitting in seventh position in Division Two and in a four-way battle for a top eight play-off spot.

Back in December Mansfield travelled to Wales for the reverse fixture and Glyndwr were leading by 16 points in the second half before the Giants stormed back to claim a narrow two point victory.

Eric Milambo was promoted to the starting five to try to combat the threat of Glyndwr's big men, alongside Dan Watts, Mathew Martin, Michal Ciesla and Dan Richards.

You could sense from the warm-up that Mansfield were in a buoyant mood, but nobody in the packed-out Oak Tree Leisure Centre would have predicted what they were about to witness.

Straight from the opening tip- off, the Giants displayed some slick passing moves and, on the very first play of the game, Dan Watts drove baseline and slammed home the first basket of the night.

Milambo and Watts, with a three-pointer, made it a 7-0 start for Mansfield before any reply from the Nets.

Over the next three minutes the Giants gave no quarter defensively and forced Glyndwr to repeatedly turn the ball over or attempt a tough shot as they struggled to cope with the intense pressure.

Paul Kelly and Mike Elland entered the game for Mansfield midway through the first period and combined for five quick points to help the Giants to an impressive 28-12 lead at the first interval.

If that didn't whet the appetite of the crowd enough the Giants made sure they were thoroughly entertained as they started the second period in the same fashion as the first.

Changing to a big line-up, with four players 6ft 5in or taller, Glyndwr continued to struggle to score.

There were no such problems at the other end as a 16-0 run to start the quarter gave Mansfield a 31-point lead and effectively end the game as a contest.

In fact it wasn't until the sixth minute of the quarter before a free throw from Usman Baba that Glyndwr registered a point for the Nets.

Watts, Martin and Elland continued to torment the visitors as they all connected with their second three-point conversions of the night and Ben Coy returned from an enforced lay-off with a calf injury to contribute four quick points.

Mansfield went into the half with a 36-point lead with the scores at 56-20 and the only question left to be answered was to how large the final margin would be.

It is hard to maintain such a high intensity when victory is assured, and Mansfield did appear to drop a level at the start of the third quarter.

Experienced pros Delme Herriman and Alan Duppa, both of whom have played in the top tier of British basketball, started to score with greater regularity than they had managed in the first half.

It was Kelly and Elland who scored all the points in a 12-2 spurt in the final two minutes of the quarter that stretched the lead past a 50-point gap at 90-39.

It took Mansfield until the eighth minute of the final period before Sheraz Hussain registered their 100th point of the night, as the Giants struggled to score with the frequency they had displayed earlier.

Michal Ciesla then added six quick points in the last 90 seconds to stretch the lead out to the largest of the night.

This was as close to a complete display as you are likely to see.
The final score might suggest the opponents were a bunch of no-hopers, yet they are anything but.

It was just that Mansfield played an outstanding game for extended periods of the contest.

The Giants played as a team on both ends of the court.

Time and time again they made the extra pass to get a team mate a better shot and on defence they looked a vastly different unit to the previous week against Edmonton.

Now they have to keep that form going on the road to extend their season.

Giants' scorers: Martin 21, Watts 17, Elland 14, Kelly 11, Milambo 10, Ciesla 9, Passmore 9, D Richards 9, Hussain 6, Coy 6.