YORK Eagles are going head to head with close rivals Bradford Dragons at York College today in the England Basketball Under-14s North Conference.

The two sides are locked together in second place in the table behind leaders Manchester Magic following York’s 114-29 victory at Liverpool last weekend.

The Eagles were expected to rack up a big win against bottom side Liverpool and they proved to be far too strong for the very weak Merseysiders.

York stormed into a 16-2 lead after four minutes, and the 33-8 scoreline in the first quarter was generous to Liverpool.

Tom Flatters, CJ Charlesworth and Milan Manandhar led the scoring with ten, six and six points respectively The second quarter followed the same pattern, with York scoring 24 unanswered points at one stage to lead 59-14 at half-time.

The second half saw all the York players except Euan Collins contribute to the scoresheet.

The man of the match was Manandhar, for his 20 points offence contribution and general play, while Flatters impressed with his passing, cutting and scoring, and there was some good defence by Rory Thompson.

Coach Dave Smith said: “It was not the best preparation for a tough game against Bradford. “Against weak teams you can get away with too much and our general execution needs to improve. Our next four games are tough ones against Bradford, both Cheshire teams and Stockport. These results will make or break our season.”

York scorers: Flatters 29, Manandhar 20, Charlesworth 14, Thompson 13, Ralph Hillhouse 9, Charlie Cullen 8, Josh Peel 7, Jasper Morris 6, Joe Henderson 6, Harrison Stewart 2.