TEAM Solent Kestrels were made to work every step of the way as they earned a hard fought 81-71 victory over Bradford Dragons in NBL Division One.

The win sees Kestrels reach the 10-win mark at the summit of the division, a game clear of second place, writes Jack O'Keeffe.

Kestrels would find themselves up 9-4 five minutes into the game after a slow start for both sides, with Kestrels forward duo of Kemel Archer and Orlan Jackman providing the scoring spark.

Brendan Okoronkwo came off the bench to push the advantage to 13-6 and when Cole Gentry knocked down a step back three to beat the buzzer, at the end of the first, TSK went in up 23-11.

Bradford opened up the second quarter with a 9-2 run behind Zach Gachette, whose scoring cut the gap to just five for the visitors.

Elliot Dadds converted on an and-1 to restore an eight-point advantage, however that was short-lived as Dragons’ David Walsh responded to pull his side within four at 30-26.

The sides would trade scores to close the half and the difference was five at the interval, 39-34 TSK.

Kestrels strung together an 8-3 run to kickstart the second half, capped off with an Andre Arissol triple to put them up 47-37. Walsh would score five straight for Bradford though and clawed the deficit back to just five, showing the visitors were ready for a to the wire battle.

Jackman briefly restored the 10-point advantage as he scored inside but Jermayne Laing ensured the Yorkshire side were going nowhere and cut it to six through the mid-point of the quarter. Elliott Sentance provided a much needed scoring spark for the hosts as he re-established a double-digit lead, however it was Dragons star man Gachette who beat the third quarter buzzer, to leave the score at 63-55 with 10 minutes to play.

Bradford would show their intent early in the fourth as Walsh once again got to the basket to trim the arrears to five with 7:15 remaining, however that seemed to wake up the TSK line up as Archer and Arissol set about reclaiming their 10-point lead.

The game wasn’t over there though as Gachette made a tough pull up jump shot to trim the lead to seven with 3:56 left, forcing a coach Matt Guymon timeout.

The next minute saw neither team able to find scores which better suited the home team Kestrels, who would eventually break that drought, with a pair of Gentry free throws.

TSK would pushed the lead to 13 late but for another tough Gachette pull up, which would eventually see them hold on for an 81-71 victory.

Discussing his side's performance, Guymon said: “I felt like this was an uncharacteristic home game for us, where we seemed to lack energy defensively and allowed Bradford to slow the tempo down with their defensive schemes.

"Ultimately, we were able to do enough to get over the line."

Kestrels were led by Gentry’s 27 points, seven assist and seven rebounds, whilst Jackman added 14 points and four players had 8 points.

Bradford's Gachette had 26 points to lead the visitors whilst Walsh and Laing added 19 and 12 respectively.