Reading Rockets suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the semi-finals of the LLynch Trophy to Newcastle in a tense cup encounter.
Without A J Basi still recovering from Achilles injury coupled to Jaz Bains playing with a back injury this semi was always going to be a tight affair and so it turned out, going down to the final seconds of the match.
Having won the tip Meshack Lufile opened Rockets account and Tyler Cartaino opened his personal account on way to a double double at half time.
Rockets enjoyed a 16- 5 early lead so Newcastle took a time out and ended the quarter with a 9-2 run to leave Rockets with a slender advantage of 25-23 with a buzzer beating treble as the opening quarter ended.
As one of Newcastle’s key players suffered a nose bleed right at the end of the first quarter, the start of the second period was delayed by over 12 minutes waiting for court to be cleaned . This disrupted the momentum but Rockets remained focused with a 11-3 run where they enjoyed a 36-27 lead. They took a similar advantage to the dressing room at half time thanks to a buzzer beating wide treble from Dixon at 56-43.
Sam Toluwase increased Rockets’ lead with the opening possession of quarter three before the first of a barrage of trebles from Newcastle including three back to back as they found their outstanding shooting ability.
Cartaino and Meshack Lufile stopped the rot and though Newcastle finished the period with a brace of trebles, Rockets went into the final quarter still 71-66 ahead.
Cartaino struck a treble and Lufile a score giving Rockets a 78-68 lead inside the opening three minutes of the final period. However Newcastle came on fire as they drained trebles from all around the arc with four in a row to level the game on 82 with 3.47 remaining.
Toluwase edged Rockets ahead again but another Newcastle treble edged Newcastle in front with 38.5 secs left but Rockets had possession.
Newcastle capitalised with their seventh treble of this quarter alone and a four point lead which Rockets couldn’t counter in the remaining 18 seconds.
