READING Rockets have moved up to third place in the National Basketball League Division One standings after a 65-55 win against London Lituanica.

It was a hard-fought victory for The Rockets against high-flying London at Rivermead on Sunday, in front of the biggest crowd of the season.

New signing Ben Allison made is debut for Reading and supporters were fed some great basketball throughout the game.

Captain Danny Carter opened the hosts’ account off a long pass from the principal architect of the win, point guard Antonio Robinson.

For the next three minutes, Reading played some of their best basketball all season. Jordan Nicholls hit a treble and Robinson fed Joel Keeble to score.

London took a time-out at 10-2 down to try and stop The Rockets march before Allison took to the floorand struck the first of his points from the free throw line.

Reading finished the first quarter with a 17-6 lead.

They began the second period with a David Ajumobi treble.

Allison then imposed himself on the game with a steal and slam dunk, followed by a tip in and further steal to score.

D’Montre Edwards scored The Rockets last four points before the interval for a lead of 34-22.

The home team maintained their double digit lead throughout the third period. Keeble stroked a treble, but Lituanica suddenly found their three point shooting to hit four in the last two periods.

Reading momentarily went off the boil as two scored were wiped out due to travel and out-of-bound violations.

Wayne Yeboah then scored off the glass and, right on the buzzer, Ajumobi hit a huge treble to extend the Rockets advantage to 48-36 going into the final stanza.

For the opening three minutes of the quarter all seemed on a par until Lukas Volskis stroked four from five trebles as London began to have hope of a win.

The four point gap included a 10-0 run which was only stopped when Allison scored to settle the ship.

A key offensive score from Robinson was followed by a most audacious tip dunk eased Reading into a nine point lead.

A Carter steal and slam dunk coupled to a pair of scores by Edwards from the penalty stripe saw the Rockets home to tumultuous applause from an appreciative public.

  • ROCKETS face their toughest double header of the season when they round off the calendar year this weekend.

Reading travel to Hemel on Saturday (7pm) before returning home for the final game of the year against leaders Manchester Magic on Sunday (5pm).

Head coach, Manuel Pena Garces, said: “We’ve been able to get some rest, integrate Ben Allison into the team, and practise and prepare for the last games before the Christmas break.

“Against London, I thought we were much better defensively and the work we had been doing definitely showed.

“I think offensively we still need to keep working and that’s something we can do in order to be reading for Hemel and Manchester.

“This weekend is going to be a big one for us. We’re playing two teams that are at the top of the league and playing really well.”

  • READING Rockets will hold a family day this Saturday (9am-1pm) to raise the profile of basketball within the region.

The Rockets will stage the event at the John Madejski Academy.
For more information visit www.readingrockets.co.uk.

  • READING Rockets have reached a women's cup final for the first time in the club's history.

The Rockets defeated Southwark Pride 62-39 in the England National Cup semi-finals recently.

They will travel to the EIS in Sheffield in January for the final.