Wildcats win second of the season beating winless Tigers, 91-71

BBL League Championship
Sunday 28th October
Durham Wildcats 91 – 71 Mersey Tigers

Click here for the boxscore.

Durham Wildcats: Johnson, Page, Keister, Baldarelli, Guinane

Mersey Tigers: Eboigbe, Etilopy, Hulsen, McGinn, Bigley

Last season it took the Durham Wildcats until January 28th to win their second game of the season. But for the 2012/13 Wildcats, victory number two came yesterday as they kept the Mersey Tigers win-less, beating them 91-71 at Newton Aycliffe LC.

The victory for Coach Elderkin’s Wildcats takes them up to seventh in the league and is just reward for the improvements they have made this year. For Coach Walsh and his Tigers, it is once again a case of ‘back to the drawing board’ as the Tigers undid all of their good work from the first quarter by shooting 25% and turning the ball over eight times in the second.

The game started with a 6-0 run from the home side before a Tigers run of their own edged them in front on a Gael Hulsen (10 points, five assists) score at 9-8. That resiliency stayed for the remainder of the quarter and the teams went in at the end of one with the Wildcats ahead, 23-17.

As impressive as the visitors were in the first quarter, they were as dismal in the second, taking 4:08 to register their first points of the period by which stage, the Wildcats had extended their lead to 16 through P.Elderkin (12 points, four steals), Page (18/4/4) and Baldarelli (16 points). At the half the Wildcats held a comfortable lead at 46-27.

With a mountain to climb in the second half, guard Josh McGinn went on the offensive, scoring seven of his 14 points in the third period and cutting a then 20 point lead to 11 with only 2:39 to go in the quarter.

But with McGinn’s substitution out of the game, the Tigers offense stalled, mustering only three points while the defence gave up 11. At the end of three quarters, it was Wildcats 67-48 and from there Durham’s lead never dropped below 16 as they recorded a solid 91-71 victory, scoring a season high in points in the process.

Game MVP:

A triple award for Game MVP goes to the Durham Wildcats trio of Keister (18 points and nine rebounds), Baldarelli and Page who between them scored over half their teams points but more importantly, each player stopped every Tigers run with a big score.

Special mention has to go to the Tigers 6’10 centre, Rudy Etilopy, who lead all players in points and rebounds with 27 points and 14 rebounds.

Next up:

Durham Wildcats vs Manchester Giants, Sunday 4th November, 4:00PM, Durham University Sport

Mersey Tigers at Cheshire Jets, Sunday 4th November, 5:30PM, Northgate Arena