TEESSIDE BALLERS

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen visiting a Teesside Lions community session at Durham University. (Credit Teesside Lions Facebook). Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen recently attended a training Teesside Lions community session, featuring young players learning the fundamentals of the game. On his take away from the visit Ben Houchen said: "It took me straight back to that feeling of training with Middlesbrough Rugby Club - that sense of dedication, commitment and of being part of

Tees Valley Mohawks Wheelchair basketball are a series of teams that play out of Outwood Academy in Middlesbrough. They consist of 3 mixed-sex teams, 3 women's teams and they also have a range of youth teams. The club was started off by Phil Bramley and Lee Fawcett after they finished their careers in Wheelchair basketball with the Newcastle Eagles in 2012. Fawcett assumed the role of club chairman while Bramley would become the team's coach. On the club's beginnings, Lee Faw

Jaydon Wise-Malcolm playing for the Teesside Lions. (credit Cuff Photography) 17-year-old basketball player, Jaydon Wise-Malcolm has accepted an offer to play for Southeastern Preparatory Academy in Florida, USA. The move comes after an impressive campaign for the Teesside Lions in NBL Division 1 and excelling at various international camps with the Richards Elite basketball programme. On his move, Jaydon Wise Malcolm said: "It was a blessing, and I'm really thankful. The opp

Tees Valley Mohawks finished on top of their D2 pool this season, gaining promotion to D1. Teesside Lions on the contary, they finished at the foot of their D1 pool and should be relegated to D2. It is worth noting that basketball England reserves the right to deny promotion to a new division and therefore deny relegation if teams do not meet D1 standards. As things stand, baring Basketball England intervention, Lions will be in D2 and the Mohawks will be in D1. Meaning the o

Aftermath of an Israeli strike on Tehran, Iran. With the 2027 Basketball World Cup in Qatar just over a year away. Many fans are concerned that the ongoing war in the middle east could prevent it from going ahead or could negatively impact the tournament. For more on the situation, I spoke to ITV Political Journalist Lewis Denison. ITV Political Journalist, Lewis Denison. He said that if the tournament goes ahead due to a meaningful resolution of the war, many basketball fans

Tees Valley Mohawks are knocked out of the D2 Playoffs by Gloucester City Kings, in a narrowly contested 77-75 loss, at the Semi-final stage. Cam Schainfield led the Mohawks in scoring with 20 points, while Gloucester were led by Karl Teesdale who also scored 20 points. Steve Butler said: "Obviously it's a hard one to take, the team gave everything in this one but we were beaten by the tighest of margins. We started the game slow and that cost us in this one." "We knew Glouc

Tees Valley Mohawks Pink with their awards from the season. On Saturday we had two big Durham County Cup finals games for both Men and Women. Tees Valley Mohawks teams made up both finals where Tees Valley Mohawks Pinks took on Newcastle Lady Griffins and Tees Valley Mohawks A played East Durham Lions. Tees Valley Mohawks Pink came out on top, beating the Lady Griffins 78-53. Tees Valley Mohawks A finished as runners-up in their game, narrowly losing 79-76 to East Durham Lion

Tees Valley Mohawks A and East Durham Lions A face off in the Durham County Basketball Men’s Cup Final at Sunderland CitySpace this Saturday, with tip-off at 3:35 pm. The Teams This Cup final comes on the back of a highly contested title race in Durham Men's Division 1. Tees Valley Mohawks A and East Durham Lions A both finished with identical records of 13-1 and both beat each other during the regular season. However, Tees Valley were given the title as they won their game a

Tees Valley Mohawks Pink and Newcastle East Griffins face off in the Durham County Basketball Women’s Cup Final at Sunderland CitySpace this Saturday, with tip-off at 1:00 pm. The Teams The Mohawks have been a dominant force in the Durham league over recent years, winning the Cup for the last four years in a row and the league for the last three. This season, they have competed across two divisions, playing in both the Durham league and NBL Division 2. They finished 1st in th

Tees Valley Mohawks make the long trip down to Gloucester this Sunday for the semi-final stage of the division 2 playoffs. This comes after the Mohawks beat Bath Basketball 87-71 and the City Kings beat West Yorkshire Hawks 79-47 at the quarter-final stage. It's a finely poised affair with both sides having finished as the top seed in their pools with Gloucester having a slightly better record, going 18-0 and the Mohawks going 17-1. Tees Valley Mohawks will have to put on a a

Teesside University basketball wins Sports team of the Year. Basketball players and coaches took home major awards at the 2026 Teesside Sports Awards at Teesside University. Teesside University BUCS basketball team took home the Sports Club of the Year Award (see above). The team had a fantastic campaign, finishing as champions of Northern Tier 4 and going unbeaten with a record of 10-0. On winning the award, Teesside BUCS basketballer Benas Maldutis said: "It's a great honou

Teesside Lions 25/26 season was a success in terms of developing the profile of the club and developing their youth talent. They finished at the bottom of division 1 and were relegated to division 2. However, the club were hard done by through the season. Most notably, Mike Hood played brilliantly for the Lions but due to eligibilty he was forced to leave and the wins he was involved with were turned over. "It’s a season where, for the last two years, we haven't performed as

Benas Maldutis is a player for Teesside Lions and is a part of the Teesside Lions youth coach team. Benas, originally born in Lithuania, emigrated to the UK at a young age and grew up in Northampton. His love for basketball has only grown since he picked up a ball at the age of four. He had a glittering career and as a youth basketballer, finding success as both a point guard a, he was picked for East Midlands county at 14 years old and with Northampton school, he reached the

The Teesside Valley Mohawks pulled off an emphatic 87-71 win in their D2 Playoff quarter-final match against Bath Basketball. The game was close through the first two quarters. Tees Valley narrowly leading 39-38. Guards Cam Schainfield and Alfie Merifield combined for 24 points in the second half to secure the victory on Teesside. Kofi Amo-Agyei was the top performer for Bath, he had 21 points. With 15 of those coming in the first half. His energy levels seemes to taper off h

The Tees Valley Mohawks huddling before a game. The NBL Division 2 Playoffs are here, featuring a high-stakes clash between Tees Valley Mohawks (Pool A) and Bath Basketball (Pool C). To reach this stage, teams must finish in the top two of their respective regional pools. The Mohawks enter as slight favorites after securing the #1 seed in Pool A, while Bath travels north after a strong second-place finish in Pool C. The game will take place at the Mohawks' home venue at Middl

Aftermath of an Israeli strike on Tehran, Iran. The next FIBA basketball World Cup is set to take place in Qatar from 27th August to 12th September in 2027. With the tournament 17 months away, many people in the basketball world are concerned about the safety of Qatar if the ongoing Israel-Iran war does not reach a meaningful de-scalation before the tournament starts. Safety The conflict has already affected the qualifying stage of the tournament, the Indian national team pla

Samuel Mamuni has officially signed for BCB club Yorkshire Dragons, after playing for Teesside Lions in the tail end of the 25/26 season.. On the move Mamuni said: "I'm grateful to the Teesside Lions team for all their support while I was there. Before playing for the Lions I hadn't played for two and a half years due to ACL injuries. It was a grueling process to get back to full fitness and I'm thankful to the Lions for giving me the opportunity to play for a team again. The