Basketball: Lions bring down Jets

BBL champions Chester Jets' eight-game winning run ended in an 88-85 defeat last night at Milton Keynes Lions, who outscored them 8-5 over the final minute. Andrew Alleyne led Lions' scorers with 20 points.

Newcastle Eagles' 9-0 run gave them an 18-16 lead at Essex Leopards and they never looked back, winning 84-64. Jeremy Hyatt led Eagles' scorers with 19 points.

Scottish Rocks lost their third game in a row as London Towers shook off the continued absence of injured Terrell Myers to win 88-74 in Glasgow.

If England are to avoid finishing bottom of their European Championship semi-final round group, they must defeat Portugal at the Aston Events Centre tonight in what could be the last game in coach Laszlo Nemeth's nine-year reign.

Nemeth, whose contract expires in July, said after yesterday's first training session: "I am considering my future." It was an understandably guarded response considering the rancour of his deteriorating relationship with the sport's governing body and its chairwoman, Betty Codona.

England's captain and most-capped player, Ronnie Baker, alleged this week that Nemeth's reign has been "sabotaged", after English Basketball failed to organise visas for four leading players and only seven travelled to Moscow and lost 94-42 to Russia.