Rockets fly into play-offs

READING ROCKETS head into the play-offs on the back of nine straight victories after two more wins over the weekend.

Manuel Pena Garces’ men have stormed into top form in recent weeks and continued that with a 110-91 victory at Team Northumbria before easing past Lancashire Spinners 105-73 on Sunday.

The wins see Reading end in third place in the table with a 17-7 record to set up a quarter-final clash with Bradford Dragons (13-11) on April 8 at Rivermead.

The weekend began in spectacular fashion to see off defending NBL Division One champions Northumbria.

Despite missing assistant coach Alan Keane, away with the GB Commonwealth team, and captain Danny Carter, left at home awaiting the imminent arrival of his first child, Reading got off to a flying start.

Tim Gill opened the scoring but a 6-0 run gave the hosts an early advantage. But a Sydney Donaldson treble and seven points for Ed

Potter in the second quarter guided Rockets to a 52-51 half-time lead.

Gill began spraying shots from around the court after the break before Jonny Foulds bagged two trebles.

Scotty Hendricks ended the game as Reading’s leading scorer with 32 points, followed by Donaldson (22), Ali Sbai (22) and Gill (15) in the 110-91 win.

And Reading followed that up with a comfortable win over bottom side Lancashire, who ended the season with no points.

Chasing a fourth three-figure total in five matches, Rockets got off to a fast start to lead 33-18 at the end of the first quarter with

Gill scoring nearly half of his side’s points.

He would go on to post a season high 38 points with a wide treble from Hendricks opening up a 56-36 half-time lead.

The dominance continued after the break to win 105-73 with Hendricks (20) and