Reading 87 - Solent Stars 83

STEVE CHANT, coaching his first ever senior English Basketball League game, nearly pulled off a surprise win last night.

Only a poor fourth period, when the visitors had Marlin Capers and Paul Silcox fouled out and committed a series of silly errors, prevented tenth-placed Solent winning at third-placed Reading.

That was after Solent had led by 16 points in the second quarter!

In a high-scoring opening period, Solent were always in charge thanks to Capers and Larry Parker.

They were the only scorers as Solent took a 21-14 lead.

Ollie Marsh and Mark Jackson added more points as Solent closed out the quarter 31-25 ahead.

Although Solent scored regularly at the start of the second quarter, they were vulnerable on the counter and were never able to establish a commanding lead.

However, in the fourth minute Silcox hit a three pointer and this proved to be the start of a good period for Solent.

With Parker, Jackson and Capers weighing in, Solent led 51-35 - what proved to be their biggest lead of the game.

Mike McGregor played an instrumental part in helping Solent find good shooting positions.

Reading quickly eroded Solent's lead in the first four minutes of the second half and narrowed the gap to just three points.

Once again, Solent were able to lift their game and scored the next ten points, five of them from Jackson.

But that lead was whittled down to just five points by the end of the quarter, in which Parker had failed to find the target.

Capers, who had been rested once he reached four fouls in the third quarter, only lasted a couple of minutes in the final quarter.

After scoring to give Solent a six-point advantage, he was called for a blocking foul which ended his game.

Chant suffered more problems when Capers was followed by Silcox, who capped a disappointing performance by also reaching five fouls.

Solent then conceded possession needlessly four times in the closing minutes.

On each occasion Reading scored and Solent ran out of time as they gave the ball away, with just four seconds remaining, for a final error.

Coach Alan Cunningham, serving out his one-match ban, was at the match and knows he now must raise his team for the clash against London United tomorrow (Fleming Park 8pm).

Scorers: Marlin Capers 28 Larry Parker 24, Mark Jackson 15, Paul Silcox 5 Chris St Omer 5, Ollie Marsh 2 Mike McGregor 2, Phil Long 2.