BRAFORD Dragons' season ended last weekend after their 87-62 defeat at Manchester Magic in the English League Division One play-off quarter-finals.

Magic have been the Dragons' Achilles heel in recent seasons, and it certainly looked that way when the hosts opened up an 18-0 lead, but that was down to five points by half-time at 40-35.

However, the home side then truly extinguished the visitors' fire, extending their advantage to 16 points and 25 points by the end of the third and fourth quarters.

With Ricky Fetske returning to the Dragons’ line-up, following an enforced two-week absence due to concussion protocol, the underdogs were confident of causing an upset.

But it took four minutes for the visitors to get a point on the board, veteran Jason Swaine sinking their first basket, quickly followed by a three-pointer from Marcus Gooding.

While Bradford held their own for the remainder of the opening period, when the buzzer sounded they were 28-13 down, but they dragged themselves back into it, Jermayne Laing's two-pointer leaving them five points adrift at half-time.

Manchester held sway in the second half, however, to book a semi-final against Team Solent Kestrels.

With 15 points, Rihards Sulcs once again topped Bradford’s scorers, with Fetske adding 11 points, while Gooding, in what may have been his final game for the Dragons, will have been disappointed with his tally of eight.

Bradford’s head coach Chris Mellor said: "We got off to a terrible start, but second quarter we played well and got ourselves back in the game again by the half.

"The third and fourth belonged to them again, and it was a disappointing performance to end the season. Credit to Manchester though, they played well.”

The under-16s, having won their divisional title, fell to a 76-73 home defeat to Derby Trailblazers in their play-off quarter-final. game.

On their league championship achievement, juniors' coach Pawel Bohdziewicz said: “We knew what our goal was right from the start, and we believed that we could achieve it.

"All credit goes to the boys – not many people realise what a long way they have come to be where they are now.

"Each and every one of them has improved over the season, and they have sacrificed themselves, not knowing what the end result would be. They accepted their roles and played for the team.

"In the final part of the season, it was clear to see that ‘we’ was above ‘me’, and each player deserves this championship title equally.

“For me as a coach, it has been an absolute pleasure to be involved in the development of these players.”

The Dragons hosted their inaugural end-of-season awards event, in which American power forward Fetske picked up both the coaches' player of the year and players' player of the year awards in the seniors category.

Award winners – Under-12s, most improved player Radu Anastasia, most valuable player Finlay Clark-Williams. Under-14s, most improved player Olufemi Bright, most valuable player Great Osobor. Under-16s most improved player Oakley Hayley, most valuable player Joe Barrett. Under-18s most improved player Stefan Wowczyna, most valuable player Calum O’Dowd. Dragons 3 most improved player Wayne Mellor, most valuable player Danny Pullan. Dragons 1 players' player of the year Ricky Fetske, coach’s player of the year Ricky Fetske.