The turnaround of the Rockets season continued in emphatic fashion as Reading dismantled the league-leading Worthing Thunder team, 102-78.
Six Rockets players ended the game in double digits with Jermiah Jenkins leading the way with 20 points, including four threes. Zack Powell had one of his best performances of the season, ending with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists. Jawad Adekoya, in his Rocket debut, played a great game, ending with 16 points on six-for-ten shooting.
Orlan Jackman led the way for the Thunder off the bench with 26 points. Ronald Blain had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Coming into the game with a five win streak, the Loddon Valley crowd got into it early, getting loud for the player introductions.
The Rockets carried this energy into the first quarter, going right at the Thunder. Jordan Jackson would get the Rockets first points on an out of bounds lob play by Reis Pinnock that Jackson corralled and put up and in. The Jackson and Pinnock combo would continue to be strong as the two put up the first nine Rockets points.
Adekoya would get his first bucket as a Rocket as Lewis Champion would swing it out to him in the left hand corner for an open three. The Rockets would continue to share around the ball as Powell, Champion and Jenkins would find buckets before Adekoya found himself open for three again, which he drained.
The Rockets didn’t slow down with the lead at 13 late in the first as Jenkins fired two big threes in the space of a minute to end the quarter up 32-20.
Worthing would get right back into the game in the second quarter, holding the Rockets to just 14 points.
Jenkins continued his impressive scoring streak, hitting another two threes in the opening five minutes of the quarter, but this is where it slowed down for the Rockets.
Fin Porter would score the only two points the Rockets had in the final five minutes of the second quarter as Worthing had brought the lead down to just three.
Coach Samit Nuruzade clearly had some strong words with his team at the half as the Rockets fired out of the blocks fast at the start of the third, with Adekoya, Powell and Troy Cracknell scoring eight points in the first minute and a half to bring the lead back to double digits.
The Rockets would successfully slow down the Thunder for most of the quarter. Even when Worthing brought the lead down to four with two minutes left in the quarter, Champion and Cracknell would go on a 7-0 run to bring the lead back to double digits.
Going into the fourth up 67-56, the Rockets looked to just hold on to, what would be, a massive win. However, no one expected the offensive explosion Reading would go on.
The Rockets scored 35 points in the fourth quarter alone, with Powell reaching the 100 point mark at the end of the game after hitting a pull up three.
It was Champion who was the star of the show in the fourth though, he was hitting anything he wanted, ending with 10 fourth quarter points.
The offense was flowing beautifully with everyone getting involved. Champion, Powell, Adekoya, Cracknell, Porter, Jenkins and Ashley Kitchen all finding the bottom of the bucket one way or another.
This was the Rockets eighth win on the season as they stay in fourth place in the standings, holding off the Nottingham Hoods and Loughborough Riders, who both have eight wins.
Reading start a busy February in Hemel Hempstead, taking on the undefeated Hemel Storm on the 4th February.