SOUTHAMPTON Trailblazers' under-13s experienced the highs and lows of basketball in the Sussex Triangular Tournament.

Having beaten Brighton Cougars 33-19, they deservedly lost 56-26 to the Brighton Bears.

Aidan Kelly (16) and James Blandford (11) top-scored against the Cougars and guard Dave Gardener was the on-court general, threading passes through to the inside players for easy baskets.

The Bears game was a different story with Kelly scoring Blazers' only three points of the opening quarter. By half-time the Bears were 29-7 up, but Southampton picked up their game and Kelly again ran out top scorer with 13 points.

John Pickering's ferocious man-to-man marking of Bears' guard TC Johnson was a major factor of the second half, but James Clunie had to leave the game injured in the second minute, depriving the Blazers of a dominating presence under the boards.

The Southampton under-15 National Passerelle League team got their season underway with a 64-43 win over Bristol Bombers at the Mountbatten School.

The hosts never relinquished the lead after Gurmakh Lakhpuri had opened the scoring and, going into the last ten minutes they were 44-39 ahead.

Blazers stepped up the pressure with Nathan Clifford adding 11 points in the last quarter to take his match haul to 15.

SOLENT Stars' under-14 boys overwhelmed TVT 46-4 in basketball's Bracknell League.

After a nervous start, Solent were only 4-2 up in the first quarter but they ran riot before the break with a 14-0 shut-out - all five players operating a trapping defence.

There was more of the same in the third quarter as Stars outgunned the opposition 11-0.

Solent scorers: Neighbour 13, Evans 9, Hatchett 8, Williams 5, Pape 4, Nunn 3, Over 2, Conrad 2.