LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS 73 (22, 39, 59) - SOLENT STARS 102 (32, 55, 79)
Loughborough shocked Solent - a team two division above them - by opening the scoring with a three-pointer in their first round National Cup game, and it took Solent nearly two minutes to take a 4-3 lead with baskets from Matt Crawford and Duane Laight.
Solent could not find any rhythm and missed several shots, leaving Crawford to keep them in touch with his inside play.
A three-pointer from Matt Story opened a four-point lead for Solent (15-11) in the fifth minute but that was straight away almost wiped out when Nick Oharabe fouled to give Loughborough three more points.
Coach Mark Scott withdrew the two American players and Solent then stole the ball twice to retrieve the lead before again throwing it away.
A Solent time-out with the score standing at 19-all proved the first turning point as Solent, with all five on-court players scoring (Story, Crawford, OHarabe, Laight and Chris Glover) to take Solent to a 32-22 first quarter lead.
Paul Mundy-Castle came on in the second quarter, for his first appearance for Stars this season.
Loughborough missed a succession of shots and Solent were able to score on the break to increase their lead.
A worrying feature for the Solent team was their failure to dominate the defensive rebound situation, although their team pressure plays forced the home team into several mistakes. Loughborough soon reached the team foul situation but Solent could still not control the game.
With neither Crawford nor Story able to score regularly, Solent looked to their guards to put points on the board - but they were unable to respond. Eventually, Story found his scoring touch and added seven late points to give Solent a comfortable lead.
Solent kept their lead at the start of the third quarter by trading baskets with the home side. A Duane Laight three-pointer gave Solent their biggest lead of the game so far (68-46) in the fourth minute.
With no big men on court, Solent played a running game, but too many errors meant that they still did not look a team two divisions above their opponents. Coach Scott called a time-out to berate the squad for their lack of discipline in team play.
Solent pressure made the Loughborough team make more mistakes and they edged into a 20-point lead at the end of the quarter.
A frustrated OHarabe left the game on five fouls early in the last period.
A further naive foul by Matt Story game Loughborough a brief glimmer of hope as they scored two from the free throw line.
The game became scrappy, with errors by both teams. Solent then took control of the situation and, for the first time, the difference in level of the two teams became apparent.
Crawford, combining well with Paul Mundy-Castle, was creating havoc in the home team defence. In all he dunked the ball nine times.
Solent were well and truly in the ascendancy and played out the final minutes in exhibition style.
Scorers: Matt Crawford 34 Matt Story 24 Mark Jackson 13 Duane Laight 10 Nick OHarabe 7 Paul Mundy-Castle 6 Tom Parker 4 Chris Glover 2 Alan McDonald 2.
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