A woeful first-half display by a disappointing Solent Stars team led to a defeat by Kingston Wildcats at the Tolworth Recreation Centre.

Gone was the cohesion and drive from last week's win over Sutton Pumas and it was replaced by a lacklustre first half performance where Mark Jackson was unable to organise his squad and American Dominique Jones only scored once.

Just at the time Solent needed someone to respond and raise their game, there was no- one who could do it.

Kingston suffered an early blow when influential coach and scorer Solomon Ayinla went off for ten minutes with a twisted ankle.

Solent were losing the battle of the boards and were being outscored and outplayed but amazingly coach Mark Scott did not call a time-out.

Trevor Donaldson joined the game and provided a spark when he stole the ball, but Solent were unable to get inside the Kingston defence and 12 of their 19 first quarter points came from three-pointers.

The first two minutes of the second quarter provided no points at all as both teams saw moves breakdown.

Thereafter, the teams traded baskets to give Kingston a 48-32 half-time advantage.

This lead grew to 19 points by the fifth minute of the third quarter (57-38) when a Jackson three-pointer sparked life into the Solent scoring.

Solent were still trailing by 14 points as they went into the final quarter due in part to three consecutive turnovers.

Solent saved their best to last as finally they began to show the spirit, determination and ability that has marked some of their recent performances.

A run of eight consecutive points in the sixth minute (McDonald 6, Jones 2) brought them to within reach of Kingston when David Butterworth had to leave the game with a twisted ankle sustained at a jump ball.

Without their season's top-scorer, Solent redoubled their efforts and came to within one point (81 - 82) in the ninth minute.

Misses by McDonald and Adam Willis denied the chance of Solent taking the lead at this vital time and the price was paid when Ayinla landed a very late three-pointer plus a bonus penalty shot.

In the remaining 30 seconds Anthony Rutter was able to score only one of his two free throws and Jackson missed both of his with just one second remaining.

Final Score: Solent Stars 82 - Kingston 86

Solent scorers: Alan McDonald 18 David Butterworth 17 Dominique Jones 13 Mark Jackson 12 Adam Willis 11 John Neale 8 Trevor Donaldson 2 Anthony Rutter 1.