Worthing Thunder's title hopes end in London Lions' lair

A defeat to London Lions has ended Worthing Thunder’s title hopes – but the play-offs are now in their sights.
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A third successive defeat finished their hopes of the title for another season.

With several home games to come Thunder will be playing for pride and the hope of finishing in the top four to claim a home draw in the play-offs.

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Thunder’s losses have coincided with a shortage of key players. Hopefully Jack Sunderland and Tom Ward will be back for this week’s home game.

Howard Crawford / Picture: Kyle HemsleyHoward Crawford / Picture: Kyle Hemsley
Howard Crawford / Picture: Kyle Hemsley

Against the youngsters of London Lions, Thunder started badly as the first eight points went to the home side.

Thunder began to put on more pressure in offence but Lions held the advantage. At the first break the difference was only two points at 21-19.

The second quarter was end to end basketball. The Lions pulled away, then Thunder responded.

As the period closed it was the Londoners who led 46-43.

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Jarred Dixon, Howard Crawford, Hafeez Abdul and Jorge Ebanks led the scoring but the home side were a handful.

The third quarter was again close-run with first one side then the other taking a lead.

Thunder pulled into a five-point lead with three minutes to the break but London hit back.

Thunder were two points behind going into the last period at 66-64!

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The fourth period started poorly for Thunder and they trailed by eight points.

However a determined fightback saw Worthing pull back once more to be a point down with three minutes left.

Not putting any points on the board in the next two minutes did not help and Thunder ended up 88-83 losers.

Everyone tried hard but the excitement and flair was missing.

Ebanks again caught the eye with a defiant showing.

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This Saturday sees the visit of Hemel Storm to the Thunderdome in another top-five clash.

Tip-off is the normal 7.30pm with a Thunder junior game before that tipping at 5pm.

All at the club hope that this weekend will see two victories to re-ignite the season. All support welcome, as usual.

D&D BASKETBALL

A team of only five players for Henfield Heat were able to overcome D&D U14s due to a strong shooting average by Henfield, the final score 67-82 in Henfield’s favour.

The U16 black team had a close game against SE Tigers which wasn’t reflected in the final score of 60-82.