Basketball: Towers fail to overcome injury crisis

London Towers' injury crisis deepened in Yugoslavia last night where the England international Karl Brown joined James Hamilton and Neville Austin among the spectators as the Budweiser League leaders lost 76-65 to Beobank Belgrade in the European Cup.

The result was Towers' second away defeat in Group E, and followed last Tuesday's home win over Milan, but more damaging is their lengthening injury list.

Hamilton was already doubtful for last night's game and the final blow to London's hopes came when Brown, their combative 6ft 4in guard, was injured in practice.

With Austin already ruled out of Saturday's clash at Birmingham Bullets, like Towers unbeaten in the League, the London coach, Kevin Cadle, could now be without three of his leading players.

Against Belgrade, London's American Danny Lewis played without rest for the entire 40 minutes to finish as the game's leading scorer with 21 points, ahead of 16 points and eight rebounds from Martin Gottfried and 13 points and seven rebounds from the Italian Marco Baldi.

Paul Deppich's reputation as a specialist three-point shooter preceded him to Belgrade. He was shadowed throughout the game and had just one long-range success in a total of four points. As a team, London scored two three-pointers from 15 attempts.