BRADFORD Dragons made the long return trip from Reading Rockets nursing their biggest English Basketball League defeat of the season as they lost 108-85.

The Dragons were the last team to beat Reading (102-96) when the sides met in Bradford earlier in the season. Since then, the Rockets had won 12 games on the bounce to climb to third in Division One.

Former British Basketball League player Semi Eboigbe lined up in the Dragons' starting five, having rejoined the club. But following a series of missed shots and turnovers from both sides, it was Danny Carter who opened the scoring for Reading with a three-pointer.

Then, after Rafi Saipe missed an opportunity to level the scores, Carter added a further two points to give the hosts an early five-point advantage.

It did not get any better for the mid-table Dragons, who found themselves 13-2 down with less than four minutes played.

Bradford eventually got themselves going, coinciding with the arrival on court of long-serving Latvian player Rihards Sulcs. With the balance of play switched in the visitors' favour, the gap was slowly closed and with two minutes of the opening quarter remaining, it had been reduced to just two points at 15-13.

But that was about as much as the Dragons could muster and as the first period ended, the home side were sitting pretty with a six-point lead at 21-15.

Reading started the second quarter at pace and quickly extended their advantage to 27-15, with the gap slowly opening further during the period.

With three minutes remaining of the half, Reading had opened up a 22-point lead, leaving Bradford with a mountain to climb from 48-26 down.

They did reduce the deficit to 50-33 by the interval and when a Sulcs jump shot brought the scores back to within nine points at 65-56, the Dragons had just a sniff of a comeback. But that was the cue for another big effort from the home side, who ended the penultimate period 76-62 up.

The fight had now gone from Bradford and the final quarter was a stroll for the hosts. At its peak their advantage was as high as 26 points and, despite the Dragons' best efforts, the outcome was never in doubt.

Marcus Gooding was again Bradford's top scorer, bagging 21 points, followed by veteran Jason Swaine with 17 and Sulcs adding 13. Carter finished as the game's top scorer with 24 points for the hosts.

Bradford coach Chris Mellor reflected: "We turned the ball over way too much, which led to numerous transition points and they shot the ball from the perimeter very well.

"We cut it back to nine midway through the third but once again turnovers cost us. They were the better team on the day in pretty much every department."

The action returns to the Dragons' Den this Saturday (6.15pm), with Bradford facing another tough fixture against leaders Team Northumbria. The teams have met three times already this season, with this weekend's visitors coming out on top in all the games.

Meanwhile, the Dragons under-18s beat Doncaster Danum Eagles 73-70 in the opening fixture of a double bill at Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College. The-under 14s added another win for the junior sides, convincingly beating Cheshire Wire 65-25.