Hildreth: We have to pick ourselves up

Thunder lost both of their games at the weekend and have now suffered three successive defeats in all competitions.

After losing at Leicester Warriors on Saturday, Thunder were beaten by rivals Reading Rockets on Sunday and Hildreth said: “Having played yesterday, and being undermanned, I couldn’t ask more from the guys this weekend, but we head into next week’s final with Manchester having lost three in a row and we have to pick ourselves up and play hard on Sunday.”

At Reading, James Cambronne led Thunder with a haul of 31 points and ten rebounds, supported by 16 points by Louis Allen and nine points and nine assists by Brendan Okoronkwo. However, Thunder fell victim to some ill-advised three-point shooting (11-31), as well as conceding 16 fast break points to the Rockets.

Tomas Seduikis and Cambronne scored Thunder’s first points of the game but both teams were sluggish to start.

Cambronne picked it up for Thunder, as he scored inside before a step-back three-pointer tied the scores at 16-16. Another triple later in the quarter by the American gave the visitors their first lead of the game at 19-18 but Reading hit back to lead 22-21 at the end of the first quarter.

Okoronkwo found Alex Barbary inside for Worthing’s first points of the second quarter but Reading maintained their advantage throughout the second period as D’Montre Edwards battled his way inside to give the hosts a 30-24 cushion.

A Cambronne-inspired 6-0 burst towards the end of the quarter brought Thunder to within two points at 34-32 but Reading countered with a 6-0 run themselves and led 43-38 at half-time.

Reading moved 60-54 in front with one stanza to play and, unfortunately for Worthing, Reading turned the screws and raced away in the final period as they managed to build a 72-61 lead.

Worthing attempted one last comeback, only to be denied by the hosts as they iced the game from the foul line.

Thunder meet Manchester in the National Cup final at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield on Sunday. The match tips-off at 3.30pm.

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