READING ROCKETS fell just short in a titanic battle as Hemel Storm booked their place in the play-off Championship final.
The game didn’t start well for Rockets as influential point guard Jermiah Jenkins was called for his first foul inside the opening 12 seconds.
Storm capitalised on this with a 11-4 run but American guard Troy Cracknell scored and hit a bonus point before Reis Pinnock drove to score and Jenkins stroked the first of his three trebles to see Rockets ahead midway through the opening quarter.
Cracknell scored with a slam dunk but Storm finished the period with a 9-3 run to lead 26-19 at the first break.
Jenkins and Lewis Champion hit trebles as Rockets grabbed the initiative and when Jordan Jackson scored inside, Rockets took the lead by a single point but were soaring with a 13-0 run to lead 31-26.
The league champions, KItking Trophy winners and National Cup victors were not going to lie down and stormed back into the game with a brace of trebles.
A Finleigh Porter slam ended the period with Rockets just trailing Storm 51-52.
Both teams slugged it out like a pair of boxers, giving and taking punishment as neither was able to open up a significant advantage to ease off at all.
Tied on 68 and 70, Rockets were called for a bench technical foul but players were putting their bodies on the line as Cracknell and Champion took charges.
Midway through the final stanza Storm held a 80-72 lead but again Rockets hit back with a Jenkins treble, a Cracknell drive and Pinnock scoring form the free throw line to close the gap to just two points at 78-80 causing Strom into a time-out with four minutes 10 seconds remaining.
Storm made a score and hit one from two from the line to edge 89-83 ahead.
The magnificent Rockets hit a treble through Cracknell with 14.1 seconds remaining and with the last play of regular time Jenkins hit what everyone in the arena thought was a treble to take the game to overtime, but the ball spun in the basket and came out leaving Storm to take the win.
