Thunder storm to win over Southgate

Sam Johnson led Thunder’s scoring with 17 points, with Matt Edwards scoring 15. Fabien Oram grabbed a 12-point, 19-rebound double-double as well for the university team.

Jerome Joseph led all scorers in vain with 27 points for Southgate.

Pride Nyathi started the scoring, but his effort was bettered by a triple from Jerome Joseph as Southgate took an early 3-2 lead. Chichester went on a 7-0 run, highlighted by a three-pointer from Johnson, to lead 14-11 mid-way through the first.

Southgate hit back thanks to buckets from Daniel Andrukonis and a three from Lance Symister to give them a 16-14 lead as Thunder were missing easy buckets inside.

But it was only a momentary blip as they ended the first quarter with Lloyd Hendon-John hitting back-to-back buckets and Oram and Johnson on the scoreboard the university side went 27-21 up.

Nyathi, as in the first, scored to get the second quarter going, while Gintas Gosickas scored inside for Lions. Ian Marshall scored to extend Thunder’s lead to 32-23.

Southgate hit back-to-back buckets to narrow the gap to 34-27, but a three from Marshall extended the lead to double-digits. Four quick points from Symister highlighted a mini 6-0 run to narrow the gap to four but Thunder led 45-40 at half-time.

Joseph scored to open the second half for Southgate to cut the lead to one score, but buckets from Nyathi and Johnson restored a reasonable cushion at 50-42.

Edwards hit a three from the corner to give Thunder a 64-54 lead and they increased their cushion heading into the final quarter 72-59 in the lead.

Despite tired legs Southgate tried to fight back, but Thunder maintained their lead for the majority of the final quarter, Matt Edwards hitting back-to-back threes to make it comfortable for the hosts.

THUNDER: Johnson 17, Edwards 15, Nyathi 13, Hendon-John 13, Oram 12, Marshall 11, Davies 9, Corbin 2.