BRADFORD Dragons had mixed fortunes from their English League Division One double-header on the south coast.

They won a thriller 88-78 against Worthing Thunder but lost the following day 83-74 at play-off rivals Team Solent Kestrels to severely dent their top-four hopes.

Despite a 270-mile journey to West Sussex, Bradford were confident of victory at Worthing Leisure Centre as they had won the reverse fixture 104-86 in October.

Another boost for the Dragons was the return of Nigerian-born forward Semi Oboigbe, who – despite leaving the club before the league season started – never had his registration cancelled, allowing him to hook back up with the club a few days after the player registration deadline had passed.

Worthing's Lionel Gaines beat Ricky Fetske in the tip-off but it was Bradford who opened the scoring through a Rafi Saipe three-pointer. Yet home advantage quickly came into play as Jack Sunderland sank a couple of two-pointers.

The hosts could not pull away, however and, in the sixth minute, Rihards Sulcs regained the advantage for Bradford, which they pulled out to eight points with 90 seconds of the quarter remaining before Worthing reduced it to three at 23-20.

Thunder narrowed the gap to a point in the second quarter but that was as close as they got, with Bradford pushing on to a ten-point advantage by the mid-point of the period.

Yet again Worthing refused to yield and by the end of the half they had pulled the deficit back to only three points.

After the break, the game followed a similar pattern. Worthing hit the first two-pointer before the Dragons again extended their lead, this time to 13 points.

The gap was once more narrowed, however, but Bradford still held a nine-point advantage at 67-58 going into the final quarter.

Worthing put up a valiant fight and at one point had managed to bring themselves back within striking distance at 79-76 behind. But Bradford finished the game strongly to triumph by ten points.

Sulcs headed the Bradford scorers with 24 points, followed by Marcus Gooding (22), while for Worthing, Gaines scored 24 and Sunderland 17.

The following day, it was a lunchtime tip-off at the Fleming Park Leisure Centre in Eastleigh.

The Kestrels opened an early lead but some impressive shooting from American power forward Fetske soon put the advantage into Bradford's hands. Leading by seven at 26-19, the Dragons' big man had racked up 17 points by the end of the opening quarter.

TSK came brought it back to a one-point ball game in the second quarter but just could not do enough to get themselves ahead and the visitors led 46-42 at the interval.

After the break, that advantage was extended to 11 at 58-47 – but the hosts then put a shift in to level matters at 60-60 by the end of the penultimate quarter.

The momentum was now firmly with TSK and despite Bradford holding them close to the midpoint of the final quarter, home advantage eventually won through, delivering a hammer blow to the Dragons' aspirations of finishing in the top four.

Fetske totalled 27 points, also grabbing 11 rebounds for a double-double, while Gooding bagged 24 points.

Bradford coach Chris Mellor said: "I thought we played pretty consistent over all four quarters against Worthing and kept finding an answer every time it got close in the last ten minutes.

"At Solent, we did some good things but ultimately a combination of indiscipline, poor rebounding and a failure to execute were our downfall – but credit to them, they were the better team down the stretch."

Bradford face another long trip to Reading Rockets this weekend before the action finally returns to the Dragons' Den on Saturday, February 18, when current leaders Team Northumbria will be the visitors (6.15pm). Advance tickets for the game can be purchased via Bradford Dragons' website.