Solent Stars coach Mark Scott must be asking of his team: 'If you can't believe in yourselves when you have established a 20-2 lead in the first quarter, when can you?'

This was the situation in the National Trophy home game against London United when Solent played their best basketball of the season for the first six minutes of the game.

The starting five of Mark Jackson, Duane Laight, Matt Story, Nick O'Harabe and Matt Crawford completely outplayed the visitors, with Crawford the early pick of the scorers with a 26-points haul in the first half.

The introduction of Peter Deppish for London gave them a chance to work their way back into the game, although they still trailed by 15 points at the end of the quarter.

London came more into the game in the second quarter as Solent committed a series of unforced errors and became even more rattled as the visitors closed the gap to six points by the ninth minute, despite three point success from Matt Story and Mark Jackson at vital times.

London had overcome Worthing Thunder the previous evening despite then being 20 points behind at half-time. Therefore, the seven-point deficit must have seemed small beer to them.

And so it proved.

In the third quarter a run of ten unanswered points gave London a 60-57 lead in the fifth minute. Solent rallied to draw level at 65 apiece two minutes later, but once London got their noses in front, their confidence rose as they netted three more three-pointers. Solent looked pedestrian in contrast and with the bench showing little or no encouragement, seemed to accept their fate.

The final quarter provided Solent with some respectability, but some of that was thanks to the London coach who - despite a comfortable eight-point lead - picked up a technical foul to gift points and possession to Solent.

Matt Crawford, on four fouls for most of the quarter, was not able to continue his scoring spree and although Matt Story began to hit his long shots more often, Solent were unable to claw their way back into the game, even when Duane Laight's final three-pointer brought Solent to within three points of the London total with less than ten seconds remaining.

For a second successive season, Solent remain winless in the National Trophy and now they must turn their attentions to next Saturday's National Cup second round match against Kingston Wildcats (Fleming Park 8pm).

SCORERS:

SOLENT: Matt Crawford 32, Matt Story 27, Mark Jackson 17, Nick OHarabe 8, Duane Laight 8, Chris Glover 2, Paul Mundy-Castle 2.

LONDON: Pete deppish 30, Errol Seaman 25, Steve Ogunjimi 12, Ryan Cadogan 9, Walid Mumuni 8, Steve Vear 6, Ibrahima M'Doyle 4, Mahmut Atakus 2.

SOLENT STARS: 92 (31, 50, 72).

LONDON UNITED: 96 (16, 43, 79).

Attendance: 207.