Tees Valley Mohawks’ unlikely bid for a play-off place remains alive after stretching their unbeaten run to three matches.
And they achieved their 95-90 win over hosts Bradford Dragons with just SIX players, prompting Steve Butler to describe it as one of his proudest moments as coach.
The Mohawks have been fighting an EBL National League Division One relegation battle for most of the season and until recently were bottom of the table.
They’re now five places off the foot but their preparation for the trip to Bradford College couldn’t have been worse.
Their training session was cancelled at the last minute, the previous week’s MVP Bryan Hockaday suffered a dislocated finger, Alex Moore was called into work and Rob Donaldson, who was hoping for the screws to be removed from his broken finger, was told he’d need to keep them in for at least another fortnight.
Acho Anygibo replaced the injured Bryan Hockaday while Jonny Foulds, Sean Nicholson, Lloyd Samuels, Charles Rhodes and Romonn Nelson made up the sextet.
Butler kitted up as seventh man but wasn’t needed on court.
The Dragons started brightly with new American Jeremee Davis scoring freely as Mohawks struggled to stop their fast transitional play.
Samuels single-handedly kept Butler’s men in touch during the the first period as he ripped the home defence apart.
Nevertheless Bradford were ahead at the break and then stretched their lead to 10 points.
However a powerful one- handed slam by Nicholson set the tone for the last few minutes of the quarter as Mohawks reduced the gap to 44-39 at half-time.
Nelson and Rhodes dominated the offensive end in the third quarter which ended 67-63 to the hosts.
Anyigbo fouled out early in the final session and with Nicholson on four fouls, Butler was expecting to see some on-court action.
But the big centre played sensibly and stayed in the game as Mohawks went ahead with just two minutes left and kept their noses in front until the end.
Nelson controlled the final quarter with an impressive 15 points, adding to his 14 points in the previous period as he hit a game high 37 points in total.
“This is up there with my proudest coaching moments at this club,” said Butler.
“To overcome everything that has happened throughout the week with injuries, training and work commitments and then produce a team performance like that is amazing.
“We overcame adversity and got a massive two points in the league which moved us up to just one place behind the play- off positions.
“Romonn was on a different level and Charles stepped up hugely in the second half.
“Lloyd kept us in the game in the first half with a great performance and I couldn’t be any prouder of the six guys who played as well as Rob and Bryan for their support on the bench.”
Mohawks travel to Essex this weekend hoping to make it four wins in a row.
“Hopefully I won’t have to kit up,” said Butler, “but even if I do I know the guys who give 100% commitment to this club can beat any team in this league on our day.”
Meanwhile Mohawks II took a big step to Division Three (North) safety with a 99-93 victory over Mansfield Giants.
Micah Innes top scored with 21 points and was well supported by Ryon McQueen with 17 points and Matthew DeHann with 12.
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