BRADFORD Dragons won one and lost one over the penultimate weekend of regular fixtures, but their victory was enough to secure a place in the National Basketball League Division One end-of-season play-offs.

They beat Leicester Warriors 92-86 but were then defeated 87-80 by Hemel Storm, who thus gained revenge for their home defeat in December.

Chris McGrew and Carl Pearson – two former Dragons – returned to the Den with Leicester, but the hosts were without American power forward Ricky Fetske, who was still suffering the after-effects of a head injury the previous weekend.

In the opening quarter, it was clear that Bradford were missing the aerial presence of Fetske.

However, in what turned out to be a rather scrappy affair, there was little to choose between the teams when the buzzer sounded for the first scheduled break, although Leicester led 23-20.

As the second period started to unfold, Leicester extended their lead to 41-32 but Bradford suddenly started to click and scored the next ten points, only for a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give the visitors the half-time advantage at 44-42.

After the interval, the home side Bradford started strongly but couldn’t maintain the momentum and allowed the Warriors to pull away again, although the Dragons remained in touch at 67-62 down.

They then ground down the Warriors' lead before building up an advantage of their own and, with Leicester coach Karl Brown calling a time-out with only 74 seconds left, Bradford were leading 92-82.

However, his interventions were not enough to turn the game back in the Warriors' favour as Bradford held out for the victory.

Die hard Dragon Rihards Sulcs topped their score charts with 28 points, ably supported by Raifi Saipe (20), Jason Swaine (17) and Marcus Gooding (16).

However, the game high went to Leicester’s Rodney Sanders, who bagged an impressive 31 points.

Hemel Storm, beaten 104-94 by the Dragons at home earlier in the season, trailed 22-21 after a tight first quarter.

But then it all started to fall apart for Bradford, and four minutes into the second period they were yet to add to their tally while Hemel had opened up a 34-22 lead.

The visitors stretched that advantage to 43-29 before the Dragons made a mini-recovery to keep themselves in touch at half-time, when the score was 45-37.

The home side slowly but surely pulled themselves back into contention during the third quarter and, as the buzzer sounded for the end of the period, the deficit was three points at 63-60.

The scores stayed close but, with just less than five minutes remaining, the Dragons finally gained control of the contest, leading 71-68.

However, any celebrations were short lived as, less than a minute later, Dragons coach Chris Mellor called a time-out with his side trailing 74-71.

But there was nothing that Bradford could do to stop Hemel from taking the win.

Once again it was Sulcs and Saipe that led the Bradford scorers, with both netting 18 points, while Gooding chipped in with 15 points, but again the game high went to an opposition player, with Wayne Yeboah hitting 20 points.

Mellor reflected: “It was a scrappy, disjointed game (against Leicester) and we went down by 12 points in the third quarter, but we upped out defensive intensity and started making some threes, which saw us home.

“Against Hemel, I thought we played hard but not smart at times, and turnovers cost us late on while they made the plays during the final three minutes.”

Bradford host London Lituanica tomorrow [Saturday] in their final regular fixture of the season (6.15pm).

The game will be followed by the club's end-of-season awards ceremony at Glyde House in Bradford.

Tickets, which are available from the Dragons' website, cost £5, which includes a buffet, and there is also a bar.