In this Covid era it’s the desire of teams to play that enabled this game to go ahead as Rockets scheduled home opponents, Barking Abbey, were side-lined with an infection.
So on Thursday morning, Thunder stepped into the breach and offered to play their home game against the Rocket. With all teams wanting to play, this game, though technically an away fixture, was played in Reading.
Rockets exploded out of the traps and went on a 9-0 run with O’Showen Williams scoring off the glass before dishing a pass to Sam Grant to sink a treble coupled to Lewis Diankulu working inside to score.
However Thunder soon roared with eight unanswered points before both teams exchanged baskets finishing with trebles for Chuck Duru which was matched by one form Thunder to leave the score at 20-17 in Rockets favour at the first break.
The second quarter was a torrid time for Rockets as they struggled to score because of Thunder’s defence, only hitting one score in the opening seven minutes as Thunder rained in trebles and buttoned down the hatches to take the period by 21-7 and have a half time lead of 38-27.
Thunders captain Zaire Taylor laid the foundation with 10 personal points and four rebounds in this quarter. Thunder were also secure form the free throw line whilst Rockets hadn’t driven enough and hadn’t enjoyed to the stripe whilst Rockets two point shot percentage was just 33% whilst Rockets had also had 14 turnovers from which Thunder scored 12 points.
The half time pep talk from Head Coach Alan Keane had obviously been well heard as Rockets exploded again all round the court taking most rebounds and as Leome Francis went to work inside and Reis Pinnock shone with a brace of sparkling interceptions, a drive and key rebounds, Rockets were in the ascendancy.
A Diankulu tip in and dish to Williams to sink a treble brought Rockets further encouragement and two clinical finishes from Ben Dixon saw Rockets just 6 points adrift. They eventually took the quarter 20-17 leaving them 47-55 down as the final stanza began.
A long shot by Diankulu got Rockets off to a great start and when Francis made a three point play, the deficit was just five points. Thunder stayed patient with all the experience had on court against a young Rockets side still without the experienced Sam Toluwase away on ‘forces’ duty, scoring intermittently and keeping five to seven points ahead mid- way through the final quarter.
Then another Pinnock great interception quickly followed by a successful drive coupled to points form the free throw line to Francis saw Rockets just a single point in arrears with under three minutes remaining.
Williams stroked a treble and Rockets regained the lead for the first time since early in period two at 68-66.
Thunder drew level by hitting a pair from the free throw line but Francis scored inside to give Rockets a slender advantage with less then two minutes on the clock. A sideline inbound by Thunder proved decisive as they turned it into a two point play and re-take the lead by a single point with just over 90 secs remaining.
Both team defences came to the fore again as neither team scored in the next minute leaving Rockets 70-71 down and 36 secs left.
A Worthing time-out and score coupled to a Rockets miss saw Thunder gain the win from the free throw line though the second half had seen an awesome change in performance by Rockets.
