Basketball BOLTON Seniors tavelled to Copley, and with the league title at stake, the game had to be approached with the right attitude.

Copley, winners last year, turned out a strong team boosted by former National League players and always proved to be Bolton's downfall.

Bolton depended on their own former England juniors to ensure the game would be close. Bolton began well with Paul Clarke off to an early start, hitting jump shots from every angle to help his team to a 10 point advantage midway through the first half.

The game began to grow into a grudge match with the referees calling the game tightly. Neither team could believe some of the calls, but at least they were consistantly poor!

Copley stayed close as the half ended with Bolton seven points clear. Tempers were beginning to show and Copley began to lose the mental edge, complaining a little too much to the referees. Although both teams had bad calls, it was Copley who protested the loudest which earned two of their players technical fouls.

The momentum switched to Bolton as they pushed the lead to 12 with contributions from Richard Seddon and Ben Burns. Copley would not be shaken and began a comeback, and with 15 seconds remaining the game was tied.

Copley had the ball and as a three-pointer went up Bolton could only hope. It went in and Bolton looked to lose another game by three points or less. Five seconds remained when a jump ball was called. Seddon won the tap, knocking it to Mike Nichols who dribbled once and as the shot was being released, he was hammered as a foul was called.

This gave him three free throws to tie the game. With his nerves still secure, he nailed them to send the game into over-time. Bolton outscored the home team 14 to 3 for an important win.

Paul Clarke and Mike Nichols led scorers with 28 and 21 points respectively.

With only four games remaining, the league title is still up for grabs with Bolton in second place.

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