BRADFORD Dragons were caught napping by Leicester Warriors at the weekend, crashing to a 88-77 defeat.

In a game that tipped off at the earlier than usual start time of 3pm, the Dragons fell behind early on at Braunstone Leisure Centre, and never fully recovered.

Like the previous week’s fixture against Manchester Magic, the Dragons couldn’t buy a basket in the opening six minutes, going down to an early 8-1 deficit.

And it took a Marcus Gooding three-pointer to finally get them going.

With only 90 seconds of the first quarter remaining, the game was tied at 12-12. However, the home side edged ahead to finish the period at 18-17.

Bradford took the lead with the opening score of the second quarter – a Ricky Fetske two-point jump shot – but the two sides traded baskets during the early moments of the period.

However, it was the home side who again put themselves in the driving seat and with less than two minutes to half-time they were up by 11 points.

Fetske then bagged another two points and a foul, which he followed through with the extra point from the free-throw line and then Gooding hit a three to pull the deficit back to just five.

Leicester responded with three points of their own to finish the half with a healthy eight-point advantage at 52-44.

The Warriors extended that lead to ten from the restart, but a couple more successive three pointers from Gooding quickly brought the game back to just four points, and a Rihards Sulcs free throw narrowed the gap to only three points.

That again triggered the home side into action, building their lead back to 10 points with four and a half minutes of the penultimate period remaining.

Bradford roared back, taking the lead once more with less than three minutes remaining in the period.

But as the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the third quarter Leicester were again ahead by two points at 65-63.

Straight from the restart, Fetske popped in a two pointer to level the scores.

But that was as close as they got, with Leicester again opening a four-point gap (73-69), before the game had an unexpected delay due to a facial injury to one of the Leicester players.

Once the game resumed, Leicester made the most of their home advantage and with less than a minute remaining they were holding an unassailable 14-point lead.

Despite one final three-point score from Gooding, there was nothing that Bradford could do to prevent their hosts from claiming the victory.

Dragons coach Mellor said: “We played well in patches, but overall our rebounding wasn’t good enough.

"Defensively we allowed too much dribble penetration and we didn’t shoot the ball well enough from behind the arc.”

The Dragons now face one more game, away at Hemel Storm on Saturday (7pm) before the season takes a short break over Christmas and the New Year.

Dragons’ under-18s were also in action on Saturday, falling to a 74-71 defeat at Doncaster Danum Eagles.

On Sunday, the under-16s travelled to Sheffield Junior Sharks II, returning home with an 80-84 victory.