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Michael

Cup opener sees Giants romp home

Published Date: 28 September 2009
By Steve Baxter
MANSFIELD Giants secured their first win of the new basketball season on Saturday at the first attempt, downing the University of Birmingham 100-60 in the Patrons Cup.
While the scoreline indicates somewhat of a rout for the Giants, the first half of this contest suggested it would be anything but, after trailing by one after the first quarter.

The Giants rallied in the second quarter though to earn a seven point lead going into the second half with the score 42-35.

It was a slow start for the Giants and the starting unit appeared to lack any kind of cohesion, turning the ball over frequently while allowing Birmingham big man Uche Umekwe room inside to score 12 first half points.

Only Giants coach Dan Richards put up any sustained resistance on his way to 10 points at the break.

Indeed it was the Mansfield bench who sparked the game back in the Giants favour scoring 15 of the teams 25 second quarter points with Paul Kelly scoring seven in quick succession at the start of the
quarter, whilst the young trio of Tom Griffiths, Sheraz Hussain and Alex Denholm kept the scoreboard ticking over.

If the first half was sloppy and disjointed from the Giants, the second half was anything but.

The interior defence from Ben Coy, Mark Boot and Dan Watts was stifling whilst the fast breaking offence was scintillating. Gone were the errors that littered the first half and the execution was near perfection.

Polish guard Michal Ciesla slashed his way to 17 points in the first seven minutes of the quarter alone as the Giants pulled away from 42-35 to 69-38 and effectively put an end to the contest.

The final quarter started with the Giants possessing a 34 point lead and with all five starters taking a rest it was left to the second string to take the game on.

Birmingham briefly put up some resistance quickly scoring the first nine points of the quarter but the point's difference was just too great for a comeback to be possible.

Mike Elland scored his second and third three-pointers of the half as a Giants 14-2 run of their own stretched the lead to 90-55 with five minutes remaining.

The starting five returned to end the game trying to reach the coveted 100 point mark, but a three minute scoreless stretch look to have put paid to that.

Up stepped Dan Watts to nail back to back three pointers in double quick time and with 20 seconds remaining the Giants had reached 98 points.

A lovely passing move ended with a Dan Watts dunk almost on the buzzer to bring up the 100 mark, and what a way to do it.

This was the proverbial game of two halves. The second half performance was almost unrecognisable from that of the first half and surely the Giants will need to maintain that momentum when they entertain another team from the Second City, Birmingham A's this Saturday at Oak Tree Leisure Centre, 6pm tip off.

Giants scorers: Ciesla 23, Watts 23, Richards 12, Kelly 11, Elland 11, Hussain 8, Boot 6, Coy 2, Denholm 2, Griffiths 2.

Giants unveiled their third new signing for the new season as 5ft 10ins point guard Tom Griffith joins the Giants from Worcester Wolves, where he was the team's Division Three Most Valuable Player last year, averaging 16 points, five assists and two steals.

Tom has represented Great Britain for the World University Games and finished second in Dublin.

Head Coach Danny Richards said: "I am really pleased to sign Tom, he is a true point guard with great ball handling, and passing skills.

He is also a good leader and I'm confident he will run the team and make everyone around him better."

Tom added: "I came to Mansfield because of the hard working nature and the ambition to where the club wants to be.

"I looked for teams in the division above but saw they did not have ambition and drive to be better. When talking to Danny I saw what he wanted and made me feel at home.

"Plus the team is really close and have made me feel very welcome and do anything for me.

"But its going to be a big year and were going to surprise a lot of teams. I just hope I can fit in quickly and help the team win with my passing and floor general skills. Plus I like to make other guys look good!"

The full article contains 764 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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* Last Updated: 28 September 2009 5:18 PM
* Source: n/a
* Location: Mansfield

Tom

Thank you for info!
Congratulations from START MEBLE Dobrodzień to GIANTS!

fanka · Gość

Londyńczycy odcinek 2487 pt. "Urzekła mnie Toja historia"

Michael

Michael

Giants walk tall in Patrons Cup

Published Date: 07 October 2009

For the second week in a row Mansfield Giants found a second half performance good enough to produce a victory in an 84-69 Patrons Cup victory over visitors Birmingham A's.
It was a slow start again in which the Birmingham A's edged ahead by 10 points at 27-17, on the back of some hot shooting with Myles Hesson hitting four three point shots.

The introduction of Paul Kelly spurred the Giants on with five quick points and by the end of the quarter Mansfield had reduced the deficit to six points at 32-26.

You simply cannot win basketball games by letting in so many points and while Michal Ciesla hit 10 first quarter points for the Giants, it was clear that if they were to win the game they would have to do so by playing much better defence.

They did just that from the start of the second quarter as better team defence made the A's work a lot harder for any reward and the Giants slowly chipped away at the lead.

Despite two further three pointers by Birmingham in the first two minutes of the quarter, Giants gave up only six further points in the remaining eight minutes of the half.

Mansfield were still scoring relatively frequently at the other end and took the quarter 19-12 to gain a half time lead by the slenderest of margins at 45-44. Highlight of the quarter was undoubtedly Dan Watts' massive baseline dunk.

One thing that was not going smoothly for Mansfield, however, was the three point shooting and at half time, while they had connected on five attempts, they had missed on 12 others.

The third quarter was a scrappy affair with Birmingham racking up foul after foul. But Giants could not capitalise and made only four of their 10 free throw attempts in the quarter.

Birmingham actually stole the quarter 16- 15 as the final quarter begant tied at 60 points each.

The message from the bench was to keep attacking the Birmingham basket. They had only brought eight players and foul trouble was starting to mount for them.

When Olly Turner, who had been impressive for Birmingham, fouled out in the first minute of the final quarter the tide was starting to turn in the Giants' favour. Birmingham had scored the opening four points in the first minute of the final quarter but were to go on to score another two baskets in the last nine minutes of the contest.

Mansfield's free throw shooting continued to be woeful, missing on nine attempts in the fourth quarter alone. If they had connected with these on a more regular basis then the game would not have been so close.

Dan Watts was immense on the boards, picking up 15 rebounds in the game.

With two more A's players fouling out, coach Dan Richards and Michal Cielsa scored a combined 18 points in the quarter to make what will appears like a comfortable scoreline.

Again there were positives for Mansfield as six players got four or more rebounds in the game. Also they had held Birmingham to 37 points in the final three quarters after giving up 32 in the first quarter.

But, perhaps most importantly, they had got the win without playing anything like their best basketball.

Michal Ciesla led the Giants in scoring for the second consecutive week with 26 points.

Further scorers were Richards 19, Kelly 12, Watts 10, Elland 8, Coy 6, Griffiths 3.

This weekend see the Giants travel to unbeaten Durham on Sunday, looking for another win to try to progress to the latter stages of the competition.

The full article contains 614 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

* Last Updated: 07 October 2009 1:13 PM
* Source: n/a
* Location: Mansfield

Tom

Brawo Michał!

Michael

2 kolejne mecze z Pucharu Ligi ( w tym czasie nie byłem obecny - powód? Smile

trening w dobrodzieniu.. i własne wesele Smile

)

Giants in good cup position despite Durham defeat

Published Date: 13 October 2009
By Submitted Copy
SPIRITS were high for Mansfield Giants' biggest test of the season to date against the only other undefeated team in their Patrons Cup group match the Durham Wildcats.
But it was the Wildcats who clawed their way to an 83-63 success.

However, despite the defeat all is not lost for Mansfield, who still sit in second place in the five team group.

Victory at home to Team Northumbria this Saturday will still see

the Giants progress to the semi-finals of the competition.

Top scorer Michal Ciesla, who had averaged 26 points per game in the Giants previous two victories, was missing due to being out of the country, which meant achieving a win on the road against the team who had pipped Mansfield to top spot in Division Three would be a big ask.

One of the key messages prior to the game from coaches Dan Richards and Steve Baxter was to not allow space for the Durham outside shooters as the Wildcats have numerous players who can hit the three point shot.

This message went unheeded, though, as five different Durham players connected in a first quarter in which the Giants started listlessly.

It was an error strewn quarter for the Giants and they repeatedly turned the ball over to the opposition without attempting a shot at the basket.

The home side on the other hand looked anything but a team who remarkably, due to injuries, had failed to train as a complete unit so far this season.

Their ball movement was slick and time after time they managed to force a Giants turnover.

Only seven first quarter points from Dan Watts and a five point burst in the final minute of the period saw the Giants keep within touching distance, trailing 23-16 at the break.

Mansfield had swapped from a man to man to a zone marking system and the defensive intensity seemed to increase no end.

A second Mike Elland three pointer started the second quarter, followed closely by a Richards three point play which saw the gap reduced to three.

When Elland was fouled shooting a three pointer on the next play of the game he had a chance to even the contest.

But he connected with only one of the three attempts.

It was certainly better though from the Giants and confidence was increasing.

The teams traded baskets for the next few minutes before the Wildcats re-discovered their three point shooting touch to stretch the lead out to eight points on the back of three made three pointers.

Mansfield rallied slightly and went into the half time interval trailing 41-35 as they began to put up a better fight than at the start of the match.

After the break it was Durham who started the livelier.

Paul Elderkin, Durham's leading scorer from last term, started to find his range with increasing accuracy on his way to a game high 24 points.

Toward the end of the third period Durham had gradually increased the lead to 15 points before Elland made his fourth three pointer of the game and two Richards free throws reduced the deficit back to 10.

The Wildcats' US import player Scott Morton found room on the buzzer to connect with his third three pointer and the Giants went into the final quarter trailing by 13 at 63-50.

It was difficult to see where the Giants were going to find the heart to come back into the game.

Points were not coming with the usual regularity and everything they did get was hard fought for.

However, this team refuses to quit and, with hard work and determination, they slowly chipped away at the lead and, when Ben Coy stole the ball and ran the length of the floor to score and get fouled in the process, Mansfield had reduced the Durham lead to seven with five minutes remaining.

But the Giants ran out of steam and a worried Durham returned their starters to close out the game with a 14-2 run.

A major concern for the team was the Giants woeful accuracy from the free throw line for the third week running.

They connected with just 13 out of 26 attempts and will need better accuracy if they are to compete for honours.

GIANTS SCORERS: Richards 18, Watts 17, Elland 15, Coy 7, Kelly 2, Griffiths 2, White 2.

Tip off against Team Northumbria is at 6pm at Oaktree Leisure Centre this Saturday.

Giants' success in must-win game books semis spot

Published Date: 21 October 2009
By Steve Baxter
MANSFIELD Giants duly obliged in their must-win clash at home to Team Northumbria with an 85-71 victory booking their spot in the EBL Patrons Cup semi-finals.
Leading scorer Michal Ciesla was still overseas so Giants promoted Mike Elland to the starting five alongside Dan Richards, Dan Watts, Ben Coy and Mark Boot.

It was a scrappy start to the contest with both teams failing to connect until an Elland three started the scoring.

All of a sudden the Giants began to connect with increasing regularity while keeping the clamps on Northumbria at the defensive end.

Mansfield scored the first 11 points of the contest without reply, Elland personally scoring seven of those. It took over six minutes for the visitors to contribute to the scoresheet with Toby Hutton getting them off the mark.

Two Dylan Gomez three-pointers ensured the visitors at least got into double figures at the quarter break, although by this time Mansfield had racked up 21 points of their own.

The second quarter was a scrappy affair from the Giants' point of view.

Northumbria stepped up their defensive intensity a few notches and managed to take the quarter by 19-14 and narrow the gap to only four points.

Northumbria started the third quarter the brighter team and by the fourth minute had taken a slender one point lead on the back of another Gomez three.

It proved to be the wake-up call Mansfield needed as they went on a 20-5 tear to finish the quarter, started by an Elland three pointer, on which he was fouled and converted the free throw, and backed up by further three-pointers from Elland again, Richards, Watts and Griffiths.
Suddenly things looked comfortable again for the Giants.

Northumbria lacked ideas on how to break down the Giants' stifling defence and when their three-pointers stopped falling they lacked a plan B and went into the final quarter trailing 59-45.

The first few minutes saw a back and forth affair. But Giants never looked like conceding the lead and Northumbria finally seemed to accept the fact.

Seven points in the last 60 seconds of the game for Chris Pearce reduced the final gap to 14 points but it was a case of job done for Mansfield.

They had produced a thoroughly professional performance when it mattered and ensured they would be away to either Brixton or Westminster in the semi-finals in February.

Elland led the scorers with a season high 18 points. Other Giants scorers were Richards 16, Watts 16 (plus 14 rebounds), Griffiths 9, Coy 8, Boot 6, Hussain 6, Kelly 4 and White 2.

A withdrawal from the league by Colchester ensures a blank fixture this weekend for the Giants when the league begins in earnest.
Mansfield's next game is away to Durham Wildcats on Saturday, 31st October.

Michael

Men's Division Patron's Cup
EBL stats update - Oct 30 2009

Scoring Leaders PPG
Paul Mundy-Castle
(Brixton Topcats) 29.00
Saul Rodgers
(Plymouth Marjon) 26.00
Brad Smith
(Medway Park Crusaders) 25.00
Michal Ciesla
(Mansfield Giants) 24.50
Usman Baba
(Glyndwr Nets) 21.00

Rebounding Leaders RPG
Usman Baba
(Glyndwr Nets) 12.00
Daniel Watts
(Mansfield Giants) 11.33
Alan Duppa
(Glyndwr Nets) 11.00
Laurie Lewis
(Brixton Topcats) 10.00
Matt Peard
(Plymouth Marjon) 10.00

Assist Leaders APG
Matt Peard
(Plymouth Marjon) 7.00
Scott Morton
(Durham Wildcats) 4.50
Junior Williams
(Westminster Warriors) 4.50
Daniel Richards
(Mansfield Giants) 3.67
Christopher Pearce
(Team Northumbria) 3.25

2 Point % Leaders
(min 10 2PA) 2P%
Michal Ciesla
(Mansfield Giants) 78.95
Daniel Richardson
(Mansfield Giants) 75.00
Paul Mundy-Castle
(Brixton Topcats) 71.43
Joshua Rolls-Tyson
(Birmingham A's) 71.43
Max Casenove
(Glyndwr Nets) 70.00

3 Point % Leaders
(min 5 3PA) 3P%
Christopher Pearce
(Team Northumbria) 66.67
Paul Kelly
(Mansfield Giants) 60.00
Oliver Turner
(Birmingham A's) 58.33
Saul Rodgers
(Plymouth Marjon) 54.55
Toby Hutton
(Team Northumbria) 54.55

FT % Leaders
(min 10 FTA) FT%
Saul Rodgers
(Plymouth Marjon) 88.89
Greg Modzelewski
(Team Northumbria) 82.35
Justin Hitchman
(Team Northumbria) 80.00
Daniel Watts
(Mansfield Giants) 80.00
John Peake
(Plymouth Marjon) 75.00

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Michael

POS TEAM P W L For Ag GD Pts
1 Brixton Topcats 3 2 1 260 239 21 4
2 Plymouth Marjon 4 2 2 260 251 9 4
3 Westminster Warriors 3 2 1 229 221 8 4
4 Edmonton Storm 4 2 2 245 259 -14 4
5 Medway Park Crusaders 4 1 3 335 359 -24 2

POS TEAM P W L For Ag GD Pts
1 Durham Wildcats 4 4 0 351 232 119 8
2 Mansfield Giants 4 3 1 332 283 49 6
3 Team Northumbria 3 1 2 231 252 -21 2
4 Birmingham A's 3 1 2 195 224 -29 2
5 University of Birmingham 4 0 4 230 348 -118 0