KINGSTON WILCATS 105 (24, 48, 76) - SOLENT STARS 100 (29, 49, 69)

Two technical fouls on the Solent bench proved Stars' undoing in a closely fought English League Division One game at Kingston Arena.

Solent travelled with a weakened squad, having found out at the last minute that Tom Parker was needed for Army duties and joined an absentee list that included Alan McDonald (illness), Drew Sewell and Duane Laight (work). Matt Crawford also suffered from a heavy cold.

Despite the drawbacks, Solent opened well and led 12-5 by the fourth minute with points from Nick OHarabe (5), Crawford (4) and Matt Story (3).

Their fluency was interrupted when Chris Glover went off with a bloodied nose, being replaced by Rob de'Ath.

With Kingston's Wayne Henry an ever-present threat (he scored 26 first-half points in his match total of 43) and some successful three-point attempts, the home team moved to within two points of Solent (23-21) before a late spurt by Solent gave them a five-point advantage at the first interval.

Solent could only manage seven points in the opening seven minutes of the second quarter and found themselves trailing 36-43, poor shot selection, a series of turnovers and too many unsuccessful individual attempts costing them - Mark Jackson and Matt Story being the main culprits.

It was Jackson who brought an end to the poor scoring with a two pointer, stealing the ball to start a four- man move that ended with Crawford tipping the ball in. With renewed confidence, Jackson scored a three-pointer in a spell which gave Solent a four-point lead (49-45) before Kingston had the last score of the half.

The first crucial technical foul came at the end of the first minute of the second half. OHarabe by then had missed an easy opening lay-up, fouled a three-point shooter to gift Kingston three points from the free thow line, and was then called for a second foul in the half. Substituted by coach Scott, he kicked a team bench chair and a technical foul was called.

OHarabe thought that was his fifth and immediately left the court without a word to his team to put even more pressure on the not-fully-fit Matt Crawford, who responded by giving one of his best performances yet for the club.

Solent's lack of strength in depth gradually told however as they fell seven points behind at the end of the quarter.

Ollie Marsh added pace to Solent's last ditch efforts to save the game and his four points and several steals helped level the scores at 98-all with 58 seconds remaining. Then the second crucial technical foul was awarded against Solent.

The referee adjudged that Story had put his foot out-of-bounds. Both Solent coaches immediately disputed the call - of which they had a good view - and the referee called a technical foul which gave Kingston two free shots - both successful - and mid-way possession of the ball. Solent could find no way back after that.

Solent director Jim Rumsey said that the team had again been let down by OHarabe's failure to stay the course.

"He has fouled out in nearly one third of our cup and league matches and often for the wrong reason. Ironically he did not foul out in this game, because the referee called the foul against the team coach. However, as he immediately absented himself - and was not in the right frame of mind to continue anyway - we did not use him again."

Scorers: Matt Story 37, Matt Crawford 32, Mark Jackson 18, Nick OHarabe 5, Ollie Marsh 4, Rob de'Ath 4