EBL Division 1 Reading Rockets 75 Derby Trailblazers 76
Sunday 22nd January 2012 Tip off 4 pm Rivermead Leisure Complex.
For the third consecutive game Rockets were in a nailbiting finish...and a single point game...just being edged out in the last play to give Derby the win. This is the third time these teams have met with each game to the away team, so Rockets will hope the sequence continues when they go to Derby in the semi-final of the National Trophy in three weeks time!!
Rockets were still without Steve Vaughan who's likely to remain out for four to five weeks but Robbie Parker and Harrison Gamble took to the floor though still suffering after face and shoulder injuries respectively. It was Gamble who opened the scoring with a free throw before Derby hit their first points and Gamble hit a superb three pointer. Some good passing by Rockets gave Rockets captain, Ryan Lohfink a lay-up two before Gamble took his early points tally to six. One of last week’s heroes, Lewis Champion stole the ball with Jon May finishing the move as Rockets took a 10 - 4 lead. Trailblazers Head Coach called a time-out after which Derby had a 7 - 0 run only stopped by Kastytis Normantas drive two. Back to back threes by Derby saw them go into the first interval 19 - 12 in the lead.
The second period began with Lohfink finishing a powerful drive and hitting the bonus point from the penalty stripe moments before Champion scored from beyond the arc. When Parker scored it was again a one point game at 20 -21. Both teams exchanged scores with Sam Simon scoring off an offensive rebound and Gamble hit his second three pointer of the night. Derby finished the stronger though and went to the locker room 36 - 31 in the lead.
The third period saw both teams score 22 points with Lohfink scoring six personal points with the same move and all within 90 seconds of the re-start but a three from Derby kept them up by one. A fine Lukas Aleksandravicius drive and bonus point brought the scores level on 43. With the boards being evenly contested the quarter seemed to be a period where the lead changed with each play but Derby had another 7 -0 run which they effectively took to the last break though Normantas scored off his own offensive rebound and off a whole length of court pass from Luke Nelson as Simon and Parker also scored to leave Rockets five points adrift at 53 - 58 with the last quarter beckoning.
A Normantas steal and score followed by a Champion assist to Lohfink rekindled the single point game. When Normantas sent an exquisite bounce pass to Parker to lay up and Nelson swept a clinical pass to Gamble to hit his fourth three pointer of the afternoon Rockets had the advantage of a 62 -61 lead. They increased this to three as May made a steal and Nelson followed up the shot to score off the rebound. This prompted another Derby time-out after which they hit a treble of three pointers in a 90 second spell despite May, Nelson and Normantas scoring off fast breaks and effective driving to the basket, leaving Derby one up with 1 minute 40 seconds to go. Normantas scored and then Trailblazers scored on the buzzer. Rockets fought tenaciously to maintain possession, particularly when their shots rimmed out. Then, however a disputed possession call went in Derby's favour with just 40.6 seconds left of the game. Rockets stopped Derby scoring with some great floor hustle from May and Head Coach Samit Nuruzade called his final time-out with 8.3 seconds remaining and Rockets with possession. Derby continued with their tight defence and even though Rockets had the last shot to win the game, it rimmed out and victory was snatched away from Rockets.
Top scorers for Rockets were Ryan Lohfink with 19 points, Harrison Gamble with 15 points and Kastytis Normantas with 13 points (7 in the last quarter).
Rockets now have a week's break before a double header weekend, away to Medway on Saturday 4th and home to Tees Valley on Sun 5th Feb.
