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

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A defeat to London Lions has ended Worthing Thunder’s title hopes – but the play-offs are now in their sights.

A third successive defeat finished their hopes of the title for another season.

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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.

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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Everyone tried hard but the excitement and flair was missing.

Ebanks again caught the eye with a defiant showing.

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.

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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.