Basketball: Bowman outshoots Bullets as Tigers charge

The American duo Antwan Jones and Jeff Bolton made their debut at Bracknell last night, but failed to swing a win for the Birmingham Bullets who lost 88-74 against Thames Valley Tigers.

Jones scored 12 points, all three-pointers, but Bolton scored only two as the Tigers took control with a run of 13-0, including the first basket of the fourth quarter to lead 65-59. Bullets threatened a swift revival with five points in a row, but then Michael Nurse and Barry Bowman scored six points each for the Tigers in a 15-2 run which effectively won the game. Nurse totalled 23 points and Bowman 22, while Sullivan Phillips led Bullets scorers with 16, ahead of 15 from Rob Paternostro and 14 from Kevin Griffin.

Bullets remain second from bottom of the table in 10th place with four wins from 20 games. Ahead of them, eighth-placed Essex Leopards took a firmer grip on the last qualifying spot for the play-off quarter-finals with a 75-67 win over Milton Keynes Lions.

In an extraordinary finish, Lions led 65-60 but then managed to score only two free throws over the final seven minutes as the Leopards outscored them 15-2. The Leopards Rod Brown scored 18 points, made 11 assists and pulled 10 rebounds for a "triple double".