It is the second straight season a Rockets point guard has won the award after Luke Nelson last year.

Australian Wilcher has been an influential player for Rockets and is amongst the league leaders in points and assists.

Rockets coach Manuel Pena Garces was runner-up in the Coach of the Year award while Catherine Lutz won the Division Two Women (Midlands - South West) Player of the Year prize.

* READING Rockets secured their place at the Final Fours in Manchester with an 84-70 victory over Newham Neptunes on Sunday.

Despite only four league losses all season for Rockets, two of them were against Newham so Rockets were wary from the early stages about the potential of their opponents.

Rockets started quickly though and settled the nerves of their supporters inside the Rivermead Leisure Complex.

The game was always close on the scoreboard but the Berkshire outfit were always in control and expertly led by Aussie point guard Josh Wilcher who ran the show for Rockets, taking down six rebounds, making seven steals to stop Newham scoring and throwing eight assists for teammates.

The visitors always trailed Rockets throughout except for 37 seconds in the second period, which forced the hosts to step up their efforts immediately.

Rockets led 26-21 at the end of the first-quarter and looked good value for their lead with Gabriel Diaz-Morera and Wilcher causing problems for their opponents.

Newham started the second period brightly and in between a couple of Rockets baskets, the visitors took the lead for the first – and only – time in the contest.

Perhaps wary of what had happened earlier in the season, this sparked Rockets into a revival and they went on an 11-0 run, which included a Danny Carter dunk off, some great approach team work and saw the quarter finish with Rockets having a double digit lead at 44-33.

It was a scrappy start to the third-quarter and there was no score until

Diaz-Morera was fouled and went to the line scoring both penalty points. Wilcher scored another three bringing the score to 50-40 but Newham refused to lie down and trailed just 59-53 at the end of the third-quarter.

Rockets started the fourth quarter well but four quick Newham points cut the deficit to just two. Rockets again stepped up as Josh Champion scored, followed by Wilcher going coast to coast coupled to a Rockets steal and a three pointer from Wilcher as he continued to show his class.

The Australian magician repeated the coast to coast moments later and the game was all but sealed. Carter sent an arrow pass to Diaz Morera to score and Josh Wilcher hit his fifth treble.

With less than two minutes left, Ivan Emanuely scored off the glass and Robbie Parker hit a pair from the penalty stripe to give Rockets a 14 points lead in the dying minutes, a lead they were not going to let slip.

Rockets now travel to Manchester to play against Bradford Dragons in the play-off semi-finals on Saturday, April 26 (2pm t/o).