Thunder ask Smith to become coach again

WORTHING Thunder Basketball Club have approached former coach Gary Smith to once again lead the side.

Smith has been with Thunder, who start this season’s league campaign on Sunday, since the club’s inception in 1999, firstly as a player and then as head coach. He won the EBL Division 1 title twice, the National Trophy and the play-off final during his tenure, before he was replaced by Dave Titmuss for the 2009-10 season, when he became one of the club’s directors.

Titmuss quit at the end of the campaign after guiding Thunder to the BBL play-offs for the first time and, after a move for an American coach failed to materalise, Thunder have turned to Smith again, and Thunder chairman Frank Gainsbury said: “We’ve approached Gary to see if he will take the appointment.

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“He’s been with us before, so knows the ropes and knows his basketball.

“We had been trying to put together a deal from overseas, which was long, protracted and difficult and that deal has fallen through.

“It it had come off, it would have been a significant deal for the club, so we had to give it time to see if it would come to fruition but, unfortunately, it didn’t.

“It’s a difficult time economically at the moment and we just need to stabilise the club.

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“We’re looking for commercial ideas and sponsorship and, with the sport to appear on Sky later this year, hopefully that will generate more interest in basketball and in Thunder.”

Thunder’s BBL Trophy qualification hopes were ended on Sunday evening when they went down 86-67 at home to Guildford Heat in front of a crowd just short of 500.

Heat, who won at home to Plymouth Raiders on Saturday, will top the group, with Thunder’s home game with Plymouth Raiders this Saturday now a dead rubber.

Things had looked good for Thunder, who needed to win by more than three points to keep their qualification hopes alive, at half-time when they led 43-39 but a 32-10 Heat run in the third quarter, when they sank five three-pointers, took the game away from Worthing.

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Thunder assistant coach Alan Sweetman-Hicks said: “Things were looking good at half-time but we came out flat in the third quarter.

“They shot really well, at 60 per cent, which was much better than they had been. We only scored 10 points in the quarter, so we’ve only got ourselves to blame.

“The team played with heart throughout, though, and we’ve got to keep going together.”

Evaldas Zabas starred for Thunder in the first half and sank 16 of his 17 points then but it was successive three-pointers in the third quarter from Heat’s American guard David Schneider, with two, and fellow American Martelle McLemore, with one, that took Heat 57-48 ahead and they had moved 25 points in front midway through the final quarter before the final winning margin of 19 points.

McLemore sank 17 points, Mike Martin 15 and Tomas Janusaukas 13 for Heat, while after Zabas, Mansour Mybe scored 16 and John Nottley 11 for Thunder.

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