SPARTANS basketball team secured victory in their opening game in Division One of the West Midlands League.

The team, based at Stourport LQ Arena, Windermere Way, won promotion last season and quickly continued where they left off thanks to a 94-69 success against Rugeley Raptors last Sunday.

Both sides fielded strong teams but the strength in depth of the Spartans showed as stifling defence inside from Myles Alexander and Ryan Crump and great team perimeter shut Raptors down early.

With David Rice, Sam Coles and Tom Holmes clicking on the offensive end, Spartans opened up an early 6 - 2 lead only for Raptors to come back strong and take a lead with three minutes remaining in the first quarter.

New signings Dan Holmes and Sam Mensah came off the bench to spark a 5-1 run as the quarter ended level at 17 - 17.

The second quarter started in much the same vein as Alexander connected from beyond the arc and good defence from Matt Law, Lee Clark and Russel Wright helped push the Spartans into a 39-30 lead heading into the third.

That third quarter would see both sides trading baskets. Raptors, however, were struggling to contain Spartans and junior player Kurtis Dearn hit back-to-back baskets before Ryan Crump bagged two fast breakaways to extend their advantage

The final quarter saw Raptors come out all guns blazing to open up their campaign with a comfortable success.

Spartans now have six teams playing league basketball this term.

They have entered junior teams at under-11, under-13, under-15, under-17 as well as two men's teams. The first team are playing in division one while a second development side contest division three.

The club has also started a Saturday morning girls only sessions from 9am - 10am at the LQ Arena. It's for girls aged between seven and 16 and anyone interested should visit spartans-basketball.co.uk or call 07812993153.