Connor Murtagh scored 17 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and hit a pair of game winning free throws with seven seconds remaining, and the Spinners edged past Worthing Thunder 72-70 on Sunday.
“I’d just missed two free throws moments before, so I just kept calm and knew if I made these I would give us the best hope of winning the game,” said Murtagh, who came up empty at the line five possessions earlier. “To be honest, I didn’t realise how much time was left on the clock until after I made them.”
The Spinners’ best free throw shooter in league play (82 percent) drew a foul on James Cambronne as he attacked the rim on the fast break.
Worthing’s Brendan Okoronkwo then missed a pair with two seconds remaining sealing a second defeat in league play to the Spinners by a combined four points.
Lancashire (22-11, 13-9 NBL1) overturned an 11-point halftime deficit, outscoring the Thunder 43-32 after the break on a night scoring was at a premium.
Both teams shot a combined 37 percent from the floor and just 25.6 from behind the arc, though the Spinners dominated inside (42-30 inside the paint), which has become their signature.
“Put simply… The crowd won us that game,” said Lancashire coach Neal Hopkins. “We dug deep for the people that support us week in, week out. We felt we had let them down with our performance yesterday and during the first half today – the second half and the win was for them.”
Steven Gayle scored 23 points to lead Lancashire, who won for just the third time this season when scoring less than 80. Mike Bernard added 18 and nine rebounds.
The Spinners erased a 52-45 Worthing advantage over a four-minute stretch spanning two quarters and Gayle’s jump shot early in the fourth gave Lancashire its first lead since the score was 12-11.
But trailing by as many as seven in the final period, the Thunder (17-20, 8-16) used a 13-6 run to tie the game at 70 with 16 seconds left.
“Neal asked before tipoff, ‘Do we really want to be here, going 33 games deep and just scraping a .500 record? There’s been too much hard work from players and coach to settle for a mediocre season,’” said Murtagh. “Although we blipped in the first half, everything came to show in the fourth quarter.”
Cambronne finished with a game-high 27 points on 12-of-23 shooting and 10 rebounds. Tom Ward had 17 points but scored just six after halftime.
NOTES
The Spinners last win when scoring less than 80 points came against Leicester on Oct. 3 (78-65) and Lancashire has a 3-8 record in those games. … Lancashire has shot below 40 percent in its last two outings after shooting over 42 in five-straight. … Six made free throws is the fewest since converting 9 of 13 versus Derby on Dec. 12. … The Spinners had 12 points of 10 Thunder turnovers. … Bernard and Gayle attempted season-highs with 17 and 20 field goals, respectively.
Allen Gunn
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