MK Breakers Men welcomed Loughborough Riders to Bletchley Leisure Centre on Sunday in their latest BCB Trophy outing.
Knowing that their previous results meant that qualifying for the quarter finals was going to be a tough task, the visitors got off to an impressive start and jumped out to an early lead behind some impressive three-point shooting.
Ending the first quarter trailing 39-24, Breakers responded with a long-range barrage of their own as Jordan Spencer, William Issekya, Sam Grant and Kalvin Oates all hit from behind the arc.
But it would be at half time where the game changed completely, Head Coach Nigel Lloyd making a number of adjustments and his team immediately looked far more comfortable at both ends of the floor.
Breakers would put a run together that saw them extend their lead to as many as nine, with Darius Duffy punching home two big dunks as he worked his way towards a 14-point, nine-rebound performance that would earn him Player of the Game honours when the final buzzer sounded.
However, there was still much work to be done before then as a gritty Loughborough display kept them in the game, forcing the home side to dig deep and see out a nail-biting finish. Fouled with just 15 seconds left to play, Nick Woodard would knock down a clutch free throw to put Breakers up by one before a strong defensive stand eventually forced Riders to turn the ball over.
That meant the game finished as a 96-95 Breakers victory, much to the relief of the man at the helm. “We made this much more difficult than it needed to be,” said Nigel Lloyd shortly afterwards. “Credit to Loughborough for making us earn it, but we need to do a better job of executing our game plan and playing our brand of basketball from now on.
“When we did that today we looked really good, and the guys understand that doing that consistently is key to our success. There’s so much more to come from this group and our fans should be excited about that. Having them behind us really helped today and hopefully we can continue giving them reasons to celebrate," Nigel added.
The team is back in action at home next week as COB Rockets come to Bletchley for another round of Trophy action.
Tip off on Saturday is at 5pm. Tickets are available here.
