By Jordan Clarke

Teesside Lions continued their busy schedule with a closely fought defeat away to second placed St Helens, followed by a valuable friendly loss to Durham University in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd at Eston Arena.

The weekend opened with a trip to the high-flying St Helen’s Saints who were 9-2 going into the game and strong favourites on paper

Despite missing key players, Lions opened in competitive fashion, and on the back of a 12 point first quarter from Tom Horvat, Teesside led 19-25 after the opening 10 minutes.

St Helens fought back and after a 28-19 second quarter in favour of the hosts, the Saints took a three point lead into the interval. Still all to play for despite Teesside stars Luke Mitchell, Theo Turner, Arran Baxter, Billy Cousins all missing.

In the third quarter a motivated St Helens extended their advantage to seven points, although Tom Horvat and Aaron Maxwell were playing well and keeping Lions in the game.

With Horvat picking up his fourth foul he had to rest and this coincided with St Helens biggest lead as the produced a 17pt margin by the third minute of the final quarter.

Pleasingly, the short-handed Lions didn’t give in, and fought hard to comeback, reducing the lead to single digits at one point and 11pts at the final buzzer, 89-78.

Teesside Lions 75-81 Durham University

Lions returned to Teesside the following day for a friendly against the highly competitive Durham University, who boast a strong team filled with overseas talent.

Faaris Mughal caught fire early for Teesside, scoring a quick eight points to open up a lead for the hosts. Durham were struggling to connect their shots at the other end resulting in Lions taking the first quarter 21-15 and impressing the large attendance.

Durham started the second quarter with a good run to bring the game back to within a point, but some tough finishes from Theo Turner and an emphatic two handed dunk from Jamie Glen over two defenders kept the Lions ahead at the break by one point, 41-40

In what was showing as a game of two halves, Durham returned to the court following the interval a more focussed and effective team. With their aim re-calibrated the like of Jonathan Testa & Nathan Hendler in particular were starting to really shine.

Teesside had very good spells, but were lacking consistency and a dry spell of scoring enabled Durham to build a 7pt lead. Theo Turner was a dominant presence at both ends of the court and helped Teesside close the gap to just one point heading into the fourth quarter, 61-62.

It was a low scoring final quarter from both teams, but two huge three pointers very late in the game from Durham’s Hendler was the killer blow from which Lions were unable to recover.

Despite the defeat, it was a valuable game in which young players Ben Grimes & Josh Innes were able to play extended minutes. While five key players were still missing, including Tom Horvat and Manny Kabengele, the team were competitive throughout and the likes of Faaris Mughal & Jamie Glen are truly settling in with both players leading the scorers on 30pts & 17pts respectively.

It was also a great spectacle with some stellar players on show in front of the 400 Teesside fans in attendance.

Teesside will now prepare for the trip to Derbyshire Arrows on Saturday. The next home games in Sunday 4^thFebruary against Leicester Warriors. Ticket are on sale now via TeessideLions.com