Durham Wildcats need one victory from their remaining two games to clinch the Division Two title.

 

However, last weekend's game against Glyndwr Nets was a Jekyll and Hyde performance from the Wildcats, as they displayed the best and worst of their game against determined mid-table opposition.

 

A sloppy start by Durham saw them fall 6-2 behind and a late 13-4 spurt sent the Nets into the first break with a 25-17 lead.

 

Only Nets' Usman Baba troubled the scorers in the first two minutes, hitting a single free-throw before the Wildcats' play began to flow. Scott Morton's two free throws were followed by a jump-shot and then he stole the ball to feed Paul Elderkin for a fast-break dunk.

 

Pete Arden put the lead back to five, but then Durham reeled off the next seventeen points culminating in Paul Elderkin's first trey of the game. Leading 40-28, Durham succeeded in restricting their hosts to just seven points in the quarter, as they took a 14 point advantage into the locker room.

 

Two baskets from Mike Davies and two steals-and-scores from Elderkin opened the third period as Durham led by 22 and the margin was still 19 going into the final three minutes of the quarter.

 

Then the Wildcats fell asleep at both ends of the court and Glyndwr took full advantage, especially ex-England International Delme Herriman. Restricted to just six points up to this stage, Herriman rattled in seven, including a long-buzzer-beating trey in an 11-0 Nets' run that cut the margin to just eight.

 

When Arden scored from outside on the restart Durham's victory began to look far from secure, but they refocused yet again to put together another run restoring a 17 point cushion by the mid-point of the final stanza.

 

Paul Elderkin led all scorers with 35, with Morton adding 24 and Jones 14 for the Wildcats. Max Casenove and Alan Duppa each scored 16 in a balanced Nets attack, with Herriman finishing on 15.

 

Wildcats coach Dave Elderkin was blunt in his assessment. "No team can come here and get a result unless they're really ready to play, and we weren't ready," he said. "We had two purple patches, when we played our game properly, but we can't rely on that every time. This title is still ours to lose."

 

For once, though, coach Elderkin was looking further ahead than just the next game, "We're just one win away from lifting the title," he said, "but I don't want us to get into that mind-set. I want to win not just the next two [to the end of the league campaign], but the next five [to the playoff final] - and we've got some hard work to do to ensure that happens."

 

Elsewhere, Medway Park Crusaders moved into the playoff spots with an 85-67 home win against Plymouth Marjon.

 

It took a strong third period to put the Kent side in a position to win the game after they saw their 21-16 first period lead trimmed to 36-33 at half-time. However a 31-14 third quarter saw Crusaders hold a 20 point lead at the final break and although they were outscored 20-18 in the fourth quarter, it was too late to prevent Park's seventh league win of the campaign.

 

Currat led all scoring with 26 for Crusaders, with Brad Smith adding 20 and Irving 11. Peake top scored for Marjon with 24 while Wilkins was the only other Plymouth player in double figures with ten.

 

Team Northumbria improved their playoff chances with an 87-74 victory against fellow contenders Birmingham A's, but only after fighting back from a ten point first period deficit.

 

A's shot the lights out in the first quarter, going into the first break 35-25 ahead, before Northumbria fought back to only trail 47-46 going into the locker room. A 21-9 third quarter put Greg Modzelewski's team in control and they closed out the win with a 20-18 final stanza.

 

Chris Pearce led all scorers with 21 for Northumbria, with Dylan Gomez adding 15 and Jamie Glen 14. Birmingham were led by 20 Sobczak points, with Steve Hansell finishing on 17 and Gromuls 12.

 

Full EBL results from 6/7 March