Rockets Defeat Thunder in Worthing
Reading Rockets set up Sunday’s EBL Division One title
showdown against Manchester Magic with a 95-85 victory at
deposed champions Worthing Thunder.
 Demetrius
Scott’s 17 final quarter points were in vain, as Worthing
were forced to accept third spot in the table.
With both teams missing key members of their starting fives;
James Mooney for Thunder (injury) and Danny Carter for Reading
(suspension), it was going to be a case of which team compensated
best, and in this instance it was Reading who overcame their
loss better, overturning an eight point deficit early in the
second quarter to take the lead in the third and stretch away
in the fourth.
In Mooney’s absence, captain James Brame took responsibility
of filling some of the scoring slack and ended the game with
20 points and 11 rebounds. Until his final quarter fireworks,
Demetrius Scott had a quiet game, with a solitary free throw
in the first half and two baskets midway through the third
quarter his only other scores. With Cleve Woodfork’s
minutes restricted due to foul trouble he managed 10 points
and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes on court.
A nip and tuck first quarter was taken by Thunder when Ryan
Marrast and Pat Bates combined for 13 straight Thunder points
as a 14-all tie became a 27-21 advantage at the first break.
Back to back threes for Wellings (his second and third of
six on the night) tied it up at 29, midway through the second
as Thunder failed to score from the floor for five minutes.
A 9-0 Thunder run re-established a six point margin at 39-33
as the home side went in 41-39 up.
Reading took the lead early in the third as the lead changed
hands five times in the first four minutes until Wellings’
fifth three of the night gave the visitors a 52-49 lead they
didn’t relinquish. Big men Tom Sadler and David Watts
then combined for nine points as Rockets increased their lead
to eight before Marrast came back with five of his own to
give Worthing a chance as they trailed 63-60 going into the
final ten minutes.
Any hopes Thunder had of avenging their National Trophy final
defeat were dashed in the opening two minutes of the fourth
as a 7-0 run secured a ten point advantage for Reading.
With Scott trying to do it on his own for Thunder, Reading
continued to move the ball well, and when Wellings hit his
final three of the night the margin had stretched to thirteen
at 82-69 and the game was over as Rockets made 11 of 12 free
throws in the final two minutes to wrap up the win.
Rich Wellings led all scorers with 31 for Rockets, while David
Watts (19), Dan McKay (13), Andy Harper (12) and Simon Kearney
all finished in double digits for Dave Titmuss’ team.
Titmuss was a happy man after the game:
"This was a season-defining win for us. And I'm more
proud of this year's team than I am of any previous Rockets
squad that I've coached over the last eight years because
of what they have had to contend with and how well they focus
on preparation.
"Our roster has six current or recently graduated juniors,
we have only one American import player and no quasi-British
players. We've had to release 'talented' players who just
did not fit our club's ethos and this combined with a spate
of injuries really disrupted our development, especially in
the first half of the season.
"I thought we were fortunate to go in at half-time only
two points down because we were not reading particularly well
on offence and had given up at least three pretty soft baskets
through allowing Worthing to get to the rim unchallenged.
We currently have the best defensive record in Division One,
in terms of points conceded per game, but I didn't think our
defensive effort and positioning were close to where they
needed to be.
"We had a terrific second half though. We did a much
better job creating good shots from our motion - we ended
up with six guys in double figures including Rich Wellings'
31 points - and our defensive adjustments took them out of
rhythm.
"Both teams had a key player missing, Mooney for them
and Dan Carter for us, but I felt that our rotations were
more negatively affected by Danny's absence."
Titmuss is already looking forward to Sunday’s title
showdown at Rivermead:
"Despite the difficulties we've already retained the
National Trophy and we're now in a position to go for the
League title if we can beat Kings Lynn on Saturday and then
Manchester the next day by eight points or more - that's only
one bucket per quarter!"
Image - Andre Nichols
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