Giants men and women well beaten

The Giants welcomed back big man Mark Woodhouse, who started the game strongly, scoring his first three baskets.

But it wasn’t long before Loughborough started to creep ahead, winning the first period 22-13.

Some easy misses by the Giants allowed Loughborough to grow in confidence, hitting three pointer after three pointer, stretching their lead to 24 going into the half-time break.

R.B. Clyburn started attacking the basket as the Giants got the deficit down to 19 points, but that’s as close as they got.

Loughborough stepped up their defence and the Giants had no answer to their pressure, resulting in some easy scores to push the Riders’ lead to 62-36.

Loughborough then continued to pile on the misery for the Giants, scoring a further 21 points to complete the win.

Giants’ top scorers: R.B. Clyburn 30, M. Woodhouse 12, O. Chambers 3.

Giants’ women travelled away to league title contenders Huddersfield Heat on Sunday.

After four straight wins, taking on top of the league Leeds Carnegie was always going to be there biggest test so far this year and Mansfield were well beaten 100-56.

The unbeaten Leeds side have dominated EBL Division Two North this season, beating teams by an average of 45 points per game.

Leeds took control of the tip and poured in some early points. Giants fought back, playing some solid team offence to keep in check with the home side finishing the first quarter down by three points at 22-19.

However, Leeds had another gear and a strong bench which enabled them to step up the pace when Giants started to tire.

Carnegie started to find their range, dropping in some long range threes and taking their biggest offensive haul, scoring 30 points while holding the Giants to just seven.

From there on Giants put in a solid performance, but with the damage done in the second quarter, there was no going back, finishing the game well beaten by a very strong Leeds side.

The women face Sefton Starlights next on the road on Sunday, 23rd March.