Worthing Thunder beat the Blazers and tame the Lions

Their first game of a double home weekend saw in-form Derby Trailblazers visit the Thunderdome – and it was Thunder who provided the fireworks.

Derby folded in the first half as Thunder exploded from the start.

The first period saw Thunder dominate as Zaire Taylor, Jarred Dixon and Tom Ward scored at will but Derby briefly came back into contention before the Thunder took control to lead 31-24 at the first break.

The second quarter saw Thunder at their best and 31 more points were added to the visitors’ 12 .

Ward, Howard Crawford and Dixon led the scoring and Taylor produced a masterclass. The half ended with Thunder 62-36 up.

Jack Sunderland, back in the starting line-up, caused problems in Derby’s defence and with the introduction of Hafeez Abdul and Jorge Ebanks, Thunder were well on top.

Ishmael Fontaine hit three consecutive treys as the lead stretched to 83-63.

New signings including Lucien Christofis were introduced and it ended 102-90.

Sunday saw Thunder welcome the London Lions to the Thunderdome.

It was a game of fast attacking basketball but Thunder came out on top.

The first period saw end to end play and the visitors took a six-point lead before a Taylor score made it 25-28.

At the halfway stage Thunder had pulled into a two-point lead at 46-44.

The third period was a more cagey affair with Thunder edging it by 17-14. Jerrad Dixon took over as leading scorerg hitting 12 of the 17 quarter points.

The lead at the final break was just five points and it was still anybody’s for the winning!

Thunder stretched the lead to 17 points midway through the final quarter as they began to exert their class. With Dixon, Crawford, Wardd, Abdul and Fontaine controlling the game it looked as if Thunder were going to have an easy end.

London’s Jase Harrison had other ideas as he hit six treys and four free throws but Thunder ran out 94-85 victors to end a great weekend sitting at the top of the league following Solent Kestrels shock defeat.