MORE TEAM HISTORY!

Adversity '” no, downright injustice '” inspired what Moore insisted was a team performance. "Put 'Team' in the headline", he demanded afterwards.

This, coupled with the desire not to miss the unique party on March 6, when the Brighton Centre for the first time will host both men's Trophy Finals. The BBL one is Brighton Bears v Newcastle and Thunder will meet City of Sheffield Arrows.

Thunder and United were almost deadlocked until early in the third quarter when Thunder guard Danny Hildreth was controversially called for a blocking foul on Steve Vear, who was driving towards the baseline and not shooting. It would not therefore be free shots to Vear.

Unforgivably, Okolie Ugbana, sitting on the bench, was technicalled for comments to the referees. Peter Deppisch missed the first of his two free throws for the T (the table erroneously awarding him two points) but then masqueraded as Vear and sank two spurious free throws for the foul.

Thunder protests ended in the referees allowing Vear instead to take two free throws, which he made, and missing the scorers' error on the T. The mistaken extra three points gave United a 46-38 lead that they stretched to 12 points at 52-40.

Moore then took charge of the ball in a guard-forward role and orchestrated a 17-2 retort for a shock 59-56 lead. He scored six, Teon Knox three and David Butterworth eight including two three-pointers '” one on a raking Moore assist, the other hoisted from near halfway to beat the 24-second shot clock.

The run became 24-6 for a 66-60 lead, the tide had turned and from 74-73 down into the final minute, Thunder won with a pair of Moore free throws at 12.1sec. Two fortunate calls in Thunder's favour down the stretch evened the balance.

Butterworth volunteered to mark three-point king Deppisch who ended the game with none.

Knox and Steven Gayle hurt United inside and out, Hildreth always kept them guessing, Pat Bates was like a rock, James Brame was steady as ever and Sam Mead's industry hunger for the ball was an epidemic that spread through the team.

Worthing ended their three-match losing streak at Coventry on Saturday while United, at Solent, were winning their fifth straight in the league. But Worthing have never lost at Brunel University, the school of Worthing Three-peat legend Steve Nelson.

Post-match quotes to Sports Editor, Richard Amey after Thunder repeat National Cup win over London United in the National Trophy semi-final(75-74) at Brunel University on Sunday . . .

Coach Gary 'Chicken' Smith: "Defensively the team played hard and we've got to captialise on this performance from now on '” as Teon Knox said to us in our huddle after the match ended.

"We made it difficult every time for United to catch the ball and we played with consistency in defence. David Butterworth volunteered to mark Peter Deppisch (whose three-pointers had won the league match at Worthing] and he's one of the best three-point shooters in the league. He locked Deppisch up, and David's done that to people before.

"United are a good team. Mantia Callender's improved this season but we made him play for every point he had. We stopped Damian Reid getting easy catches under our basket and we wanted him to get talking to the referees (Reid, the Canadian forward from St Joseph's College, picked up a T in the Thunder comeback run, although Teon Knox made only one of the free throws].

"Sam Mead came on strong in the second quarter and Danny came in and picked up the tempo. David knocked down his threes.

"We'd got into a rut before this weekend and it was hard to come here tonight and play on their court. Before now we'd been letting teams who get 10 or 12-point leads against us to go even further ahead. Let's not relax on teams."

About yet another damaging technical foul by Okolie Ugbana, this time when not even on court, Smith said: "Drop him? I'll hit him where it hurts '” in the pocket. He messed up."

Teon Knox had been among a Thunder party who watched United beat Reading a week earlier at Brunel. Knox reported to Smith that United's Polish coach Jack Majesky had after the game warned Knox that the treatment United had given Reading, that is a defeat, would be coming Thunder's way in the Trophy semi.

Smith commented: "When Jim Brandon was my coach (at Calderdale and Sheffield] he said in those situations, it's better to let sleeping dogs lie, or it backfires on you. Jack should have done that and kept quiet. But United are a good ball club."

Thunder captain, Gaylon Moore: "When we were down 10 I thought I wasn't just going to stand back and let all this take place. Getting to the final at the Brighton Centre was really important, yes, but I don't care where the final is: a championship game is important, no matter where it's going to be played."

Okolie's T?

"That's beside the point. We got ourselves in the position to go down 10 points '” and then to go up by one at the end of the third quarter. We've been an improving team since the third quarter of the game at Coventry on Saturday, when we were trailing.

"It's great to be going to the Brighton Centre where there are two local teams playing '” us and Bears.

"I want to say this thing: I know a lot of people wrote us off going into this semi-final, saying how horrible we were playing. We lost three games. That doesn't mean we're the worst team in the world.

"I'm concerned about the other nine guys on this team. This is a team '” for your headline on Thursday, just put 'Team'. Hopefully we can get back on track. We win as a team and we lose as a team."

United coach, Jack Majesky: "We threw it away from being up by 12. I made a mistake by bringing Steve Vear out of the game when he had hit three fouls (at 50-40: from 54-40, Thunder went into their 59-56 lead with Callender picking up his third foul, Deppisch his fourth, and Reid his technical].

"Worthing played very hard and they probably wanted it more than us."

Owing to various practical reasons on a double-header weekend, both teams played in their away uniform on Sunday. Worthing played in white. They had lost in black to their Trophy Final opponents Sheffield Arrowsthe last time they met, at Worthing, when Sheffield were in white.

Marcel was the team bus driver on Sunday. He did likewise when Thunder won at Manchester in the play-offs quarter-final last season. Is he the lucky cup team driver?

Before Thunder v Reading (and Steve Parillon) on Saturday, the 2004 Trophy banner will be raised, there is a Barker of Tarring giveaway (see page 74) and Teon Knox is the popular new coach of the pre-match clinic (5.30-6.30pm; 6.50 incl match ticket), book on 01903 507889.