Bradford Dragons secured a memorable 94-72 win against reigning league, cup and play-off champions Essex Leopards in VCARS.CO.UK Division One.

Dragons ensured the long trip south to Basildon Sporting Village on Sunday wasn’t a wasted journey, and head coach Chris Mellor was delighted with the performance.

He said: “It was a very good collective effort from everybody. I wasn’t happy at half-time, even though we were up by five, but we played intelligently afterwards, both offensively and defensively.

"I was pleased we ended up with 25 assists, which shows we made good decisions and shared the ball well.”

Dragons’ offence lit up in the last ten minutes, with five different players scoring as they went on to to pour 30 points onto the Leopards. Mark Saladzius led the scoring with 25 points, including five three-pointers, while Bobby Edmunds also had an outstanding night with 13 assists and 16 points.

Essex’s scoring was led by Taner Adu with 24 points.

The win maintains Dragons’ perfect start to the league season, and they will look to extend their winning run at home to Worthing Thunder this weekend.

Bradford Dragons women put in a strong performance to beat Bury Blue Devils in VCARS.CO.UK Division Two North and hit the top of the table.

Laura Moloney led the scoring with 19 points, with Vilma Jurgaityte on 12, as they ran out 58-49 winners. They led 18-12, 34-22, 42-31 and 58-49 at the end of each quarter.

Coach Gunn said: “I am happy with the win. We underperformed for large parts of the game but managed to maintain the lead throughout. “Over the coming weeks we will be working hard to continue our development as a team, stepping up game by game while working on the little things as we strive towards exceeding our potential.”

They are home to Sunderland City Predators in the National Trophy second round on Sunday, 2.15pm tip-off at Bradford College.

Elsewhere, the under-14 boys picked up their first victory of the season with an 87-67 win over Gateshead Tornadoes.