Basketball: London lose in tale of two Hamiltons

Kevin Cadle, the London Towers coach, warned his players they had neither excuses nor options left if they were to save their European campaign and last night at Wembley they ran out of both when they lost 78-69 to Israel's Harpoel Eilat.

James Hamilton, restored to the European line-up for the first time in a month after injury, scored just five points. Even if London win their four remaining group games, they will not be sure of reaching the knock- out stage.

Trailing by 10 points at the interval, London's threatened revival was swept aside as six of Eilat's first nine scoring shots were three-pointers.

London's Hamilton took nearly 17 minutes to score his first basket, in stark contrast to their opponents' Derek Hamilton, who added 11 points to their 38-28 half-time lead.

- Richard Taylor