Worthing Thunder have tough end to season – but look to future with hope

Worthing Thunder 70 – 91 Nottingham Hoods

Worthing Thunder’s Ishmael Fontaine lamented a “slow” start as his side lost their final home game of the season 70-91 to Nottingham Hoods.

“I was disappointed with how slow we came out of the blocks; we had an opportunity to feed off the atmosphere and we didn’t do that,” said Fontaine, who scored 7-points with four rebounds and four assists.

Hafeez Abdul led Thunder scoring with 24, one shy of Hoods’ Greg Skoric. John Fairbairn added 11 for Thunder and Daniel Johnson-Thompson provided 9-points. The 25-year-old topped rebounding with 11.

The first half saw Thunder fight to narrow a deficit established early in the first quarter by the scoring of Greg Skoric and Landon Taliaferro as well as the assisting power of Kayne King and Johde Campbell. The visitors entered the break ahead by 11-points after Taliaferro’s perimeter shot.

The third was Thunder’s purple patch. It wouldn’t come before the pattern of the rest of the match played out further.

Captain Abdul scored 10 in the third alone, splitting his contribution evenly between the start and end of the quarter. His early five proved futile as Skoric, Diogo Soares and Campbell put the lead back to 14-points. Both sides traded baskets thereafter, but with style, Ishmael Fontaine, John Fairbairn and Taliaferro hit three perimeter shots consecutively.

Latrell Maitland’s perfect pair of free throws boosted the gap to 15, but Hoods didn’t score another basket for the remaining three minutes that quarter. Fairbairn continued Thunder’s push, and helped by Abdul, reduced the gap to five-points. Tom Ward completed the emphatic exchange with a layup.

The next knock-back came at an instant early in the fourth, and this time there was no coming back. The lead doubled in 40 seconds, with Guddemi doing the hidden work as he notched up two assists and two defensive rebounds while Maitland and Skoric busied themselves with ruining Thunder’s evening.

While Thunder faltered towards the end, the visitors romped home. King took no mercy upon his old side, putting a run of five individual points together, ensuring they ended the evening ahead by 21.

After Abdul and Johnson-Thompson opened Thunder’s scoring, they found themselves behind by 14 with a minute remaining in the first.

Johnson-Thompson proved their leading light throughout the brunt of their start, but even he flickered while taking two bites at the cherry for a layup.

Nottingham was vying for three wins in a row, and Thunder ran them close for the middle quarters, beating Nottingham by 6-points in the third.

Fontaine expressed his gratitude for the support this season: “We have the best fans in the league, I’ve said this for a long time. They’re like a family.”

“We need to play hard and ruin other’s parties,” he continued, previewing their final clash against Loughborough Riders this afternoon.

Loughborough Riders 87 – 75 Worthing Thunder

Worthing Thunder failed to end the season in victory, entering the summer break with an 87-75 defeat against Loughborough Riders.

Thunder’s top scorer, Hafeez Abdul ended the term on top with 28-points, followed in second by his comrade by the basket, Daniel Johnson-Thompson, with 14, while Josh Palmer notched up 8.

Palmer, reflecting on the evening and season, said: “(We learnt) A lesson not to be taught twice. We show great sparks, and I feel, had we made the postseason (playoffs) we could’ve been underdogs to win it all. We lacked consistency as a team,” he said.

“(The positives this season) has been building a connection with everybody at the club. The atmosphere is great,” continued Palmer.

After a first quarter where forward pairings punctuated periods of advantage, dominance oscillated in the second. The beginning of the quarter, however, subverted its eventual trend. Seth Wylie’s pair of threes, combined with Dan Hadley’s free throw, put the hosts up by 7-points.

Inter-generational battles dazzled. Tom Ward’s move on Oscar Curran, a former Thunder junior, and Tola Okiki’s fouled shot bookended Hadley’s accurate attempt. Abdul delighted in tormenting the Charnwood graduates, he stole possession off Curran for Ward to put in.

Palmer and Okiki battled hard in rebounding, grabbing 11 between them, and helped shift Loughborough’s strategical defence to open angles for shots. Okiki’s fouled shot re-instated the encounter’s evenness.

One run upended the evening’s complexion. Riders snuck into a double-digit lead when Panos Karras assisted Milo Gordon for a layup.

Pacing rapidly became frenetic, a trend which ended when Harrison Gamble’s jump shot tumbled in.

The south coast side’s defence platformed much of their offensive punch, flashing into quick scores as they pounced on any Loughborough mistakes.

John Fairbairn peaked his team’s momentum, before Seth Wylie obliterated it with two corner threes. He made seven from a possible 12 from the perimeter, top scoring for Loughborough with 21 from the bench. Johnson-Thompson’s buzzer defying layup kept Thunder in the contest.

The last quarter belonged to Hadley. The 20-year-old showed aggression, precision and incision: he slipped through Thunder’s trawling defensive net with a layup; calmly placed his mid-range shot off the backboard and found 18-year-old Edward Onyia to put the game out of sight.

Down 18 with minutes left, Thunder could’ve easily caved in. Indeed, their season, competitively at least, had ended after last weekend’s dismantling by Birmingham, and there were no home fans whom they’d exhausted themselves to please all season. But that’s not this team.

So, halting any momentary visions of sunbeds and beaches, they fought on.

Palmer and Abdul owned a mid-range battle in a losing war, and the captain made a last contribution for the campaign with a layup.

Luke Moore’s triple sent Thunder into, what appears, a needed rest this summer, with Palmer adding: “It feels great (the prospect of a summer break), I can’t wait to get back into the gym with friends and enjoy each moment.”

This weekend may not have yielded any fruit, but one thing is certain – Thunder will be back!