Solent Stars 83 - USAF Mildenhall 68

SOLENT STARS' basketball team recovered from a poor start to beat the Americans from Mildenhall in a pre-season friendly at Fleming Park.

The Mildenhall team opened brightly to take a 9-2 lead after four minutes.

Solent's mainly young squad once again looked unsettled against quicker and more physical opponents.

Phil Long, Marlin Capers and Nick Oharabe were Solent's main scorers as they finally made inroads into the Mildenhall defence.

A late Mark Jackson three-pointer in the first quarter brought Solent to within seven points of their visitors.

While Solent were not playing as fluently as they should, they still managed to keep in touch with the Mildenhall lead in the second quarter.

When Ollie Marsh came off the bench for the first time in the last two minutes of the first half, he immediately hit two three-pointers to level at 38-38 at half-time.

Solent squandered a chance of taking the lead for the first time when Capers and Oharabe each missed two free throws at the start of the second half.

It was five minutes later that a Paul Silcox three-pointer finally saw Solent ahead.

The last two minutes of the half saw Solent outscore Mildenhall 10-0 to take a seven-point advantage into the final quarter.

Three early Jackson three-pointers, coupled with good defensive play that restricted the visitors to just six points in the opening six minutes, sealed the game in Solent's favour as the foul count mounted for a tiring Mildenhall team.

Had Solent not missed 19 free throws, victory might have been a lot easier.

SCORERS: Mark Jackson 18, Marlin Capers 18, Nick Oharabe 17, Ollie Marsh 12, Paul Silcox 9, Phil Long 7, Chris St Omer 2.

Solent's second string completed a successful evening for the club by beating the British Police team 71-55.

Solent welcomed back Clayton Milner and Trevor Donaldson for their first match of the season, but it was guard Ryan Payne, one of the Solent Academy players, who stole the scoring honours with 32 points.

Solent Stars put on a creditable performance at the Riverside Leisure Centre in the second leg of the Southern Challenge Trophy with an 82-72 win over Reading Rockets.

Although they were unable to overcome the first leg deficit of 22 points, Solent's win against last season's league runners-up was an encouraging sign for coach Alan Cunningham.

"At last we are beginning to play as a team," he said at the end of the game.

Although the game had been close throughout, Solent's last period proved decisive as they began to win the boards more and force Reading into hurried shots.

Meanwhile, Solent created several chances through four and five team member moves leading to successful outcomes. Nick OHarabe in particular had a good game with his rebounding, scoring and assists.

But it was a whole team performance that hopefully augers well for Solent's opening National Trophy game against Coventry Crusaders next weekend (Sunday, Fleming Park Leisure Centre 4pm).

SOLENT SCORERS: Nick Oharabe 23 Mark Jackson 20 Marlin Capers 15 Ollie Marsh 10 Chris St. Omer 5 Phil Long 3 Ryan payne 2 Paul Silcox 2 Jason Hasaka.