Basketball: Bullets' second-half blitz

Birmingham Bullets withstood a London Towers whirlwind at the NEC on Saturday, then blew them away in the final four minutes for an 84-74 victory to become the only unbeaten team in the Budweiser League.

Bullets knew they would never have a better chance. Towers, who had won their first five games, were forced to leave on the bench the injured Neville Austin and James Hamilton, the League's leading rebounder last season.

London outscored Bullets 28-11 in the second quarter, hitting the final 11 points of the first half to lead 43-37. Birmingham's Tony Dawsey said: "When a team shoots like that, you have to stay close and hope they won't keep it up."

Birmingham's second-half inspiration came from their new American, Reggie Kirk, who scored all 20 of his points after the break. His fifth and final three-pointer put Birmingham 75-74 ahead and London failed to score again.

"It ran away from us," said the London coach, Kevin Cadle. "We spent the last four minutes worrying about the referees instead of worrying about making lay-ups and winning the game."

Kirk, fittingly, made the final play, swinging from the ring after bringing the Bullets fans in a 4,000 crowd to their feet with a flamboyant dunk.