Bury Bulldogs suffer defeat in their first game of 2020 in NBL Division Three

Bury St Edmunds Basketball Club’s head coach Arron MacDonald admitted that his side were ‘outworked’ during the weekend’s 74-63 loss to the University of Nottingham.

In their first match since the Christmas break, the NBL Division Three side started sluggishly and despite recovering in bursts, never truly got going.

“We got outworked today. It’s something I hate to see, but have to give all credit to Notts,” said MacDonald.

“There’s no sense in saying we were short-handed, as they were too.

“They each did their jobs – putting a body on people at the right time, playing to their strengths and playing with discipline. We can’t say the same about our performance – it wasn’t to the standards we expect.

“It looked a lot like our guys had enjoyed their Christmas a little more than our opponents – and it showed in missed layups and free-throws.

“We were rusty. We’ve now got to re-group and get ready to play arguably the best-coached team in our division. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us or give it to us – we’ve got to fix this ourselves.”

Adam Ball (19), Ed Spurling and Vytautas Girdzius (10) were the leading scorers for the hosts.

Up next for Bulldogs is tomorrow’s visit of Anglia Ruskin University at Skyliner Sports Centre (3pm).

l Divisional rivals County Upper fell to a heartbreaking 74-73 defeat at home to Essex Rebels at the weekend.

Aiden Saunders (16), Phil Ennis-Bugg (15) and Brandon Moncrieffe (13) top scored as the side fell to a single point loss.

Meanwhile, the Under-16 Boys lost 71-58 at home to Southend Scorpions in the East Conference.