Thunder edged-out by London Lituanica

Despite a spirited fightback in the fourth quarter, Thunder were outdone by a sharp shooting Lituanica side comprised Lithuanians as they hit ten of their first 16 three-point attempts in the first half.

As the game went on it Lituanica’s sharp-shooting dried up a little, but they still had enough to leave Worthing with a win.

Thunder head coach Daniel Hildreth was pleased with the effort shown, but ultimately felt a lacklustre first half showing cost his side.

He said: “It was tough for us. We were fantastic in the second half, but ultimately what it came down to was our first half showing.

“We gave up 49 points, which isn’t good enough. They shot the ball extremely well, passed the ball well and were good value for the win.

James Cambronne had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Brendan Okoronkwo amassed nine points, while Tomas Grybauskas led London Lituanica with 20 points.

After a slow start, Thunder took their first lead of the game at 10-8 thanks to a long two from Tom Ward.

But the visitors answered back with a 7-0 run to take a 20-12 lead as they hit five threes from eight attempts in the first ten minutes to end up taking a 27-18 cushion going into quarter number two.

Buckets from Ward and a tip-in from Tomas Seduikis narrowed the gap to 27-23, but it was as close as they got in the second as a score by Marius Bausys handed London Lituanica a 35-25 advantage and then a further 9-2 burst by the visitors forced coach Hildreth to call a halt with Worthing down 44-27.

Worthing tried to claw their way back into proceedings as buckets by Ward and Cambronne trimmed the deficit to 12 points, but back-to-back scores from Julius Visockas managed to secure a 49-33 lead for the visitors.

Despite finishing the third period strong, Thunder still trailed 59-47 heading into the fourth quarter, but had the momentum on their side.

That momentum indeed carried into the final quarter as back-to-back points by Seduikis brought it back to a single-digit game at 59-51 but London Lituanica managed to keep their lead and in the final two minutes, a three-pointer from Grybauskas proved to be the final dagger as the lead went back up to double-digits as London Lituanica managed to hang on for a much-needed league success.

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