London clinch marathon

BASKETBALL

Danny Lewis scored with the final play of the fourth period of overtime to give London Towers a 112-111 victory at Doncaster Panthers last night and denied the Budweiser League's second-placed club the chance of closing the gap on the leaders, Sheffield Sharks.

The Sharks lost 87-84 at home to Thames Valley Tigers, the team they meet in the National Cup final in two weeks time, after one period of overtime. Steve Bucknall scored two free throws to force overtime at 70-70 before scoring 12 out of 17 points in the extra period for Tigers.

London and Doncaster were tied at 83-83 at full-time and then level on 90 points, 96 points and 101 points at the end of the first three periods of overtime.

Doncaster opened a 110-104 lead by the third minute of the fourth extra period before Lewis, Ian Whyte and Lewis again tied the scores on 110 points with 50 seconds to play.

Doncaster's Anthony Joseph scored a free throw to open a single-point lead before Lewis stole victory.

Sixty points were scored from the free throw line in Manchester Giants' 97-92 win over London Leopards at the National Cycling Centre, where five players fouled out. Cam Johnson hit 27 points to lead the scorers for the Giants, who made 10 of their last 12 points from the foul line.

Hemel Royals climbed to their highest position of the season, ninth, when Leon Noel scored with the last shot of the game for a 91-90 win against the bottom club, Sunderland Scorpions.

Derby Bucks slipped to 10th with their 92-66 home defeat against Worthing Bears, while Leicester City Riders dropped into the bottom three re-election places with a 96-81 loss at Thames Valley Tigers on Saturday and last night's 89-78 defeat at home to Worthing.