Bury and Bolton Wildcats 99, Cardiff Phoenix 94 BURY & BOLTON Wildcats basketball team produced one of the performances of the season when they overturned a 15-point final quarter deficit against a team destined for the Premiership.

Roared on by the Castle crowd, Bury and Bolton left their one-time coach, Curtis Zavier, speechless.

There had been no signs of the drama to come as Bury and Bolton put behind them the loss of their influential point guard, Sean McKie, to the Manchester Giants.

With Chris McCormick absent for family reasons, two of the WildCats' effective players were missing but Nigel Yates showed why he was selected for last year's All Star team and after only three minutes Bury and Bolton led 7-0. By the end of the first quarter the WildCats only led 25-23.

With regular visits to the free throw line Cardiff pushed home their advantage, and despite Nigel Yates rounding off what he started, the WildCats went into the locker room trailing 43-56.

Getting on the end of some sharp incisive passes by Anthony Crow and Richard Moses the WildCats sank seven superb points to put themselves within touching distance.

Gradually the lead was but back but with only three minutes left Cardiff were still 86-93 ahead.

But with seconds left Ian Howard finished off the scoring that sent the WildCats to a 99-94 victory.

Bury and Bolton points scorers: Nigel Yates 25, Larry Spencer 23, Anthony Crow 19, Richard Moses 18, Ian Howard 14.

This Saturday, tip-off 7.30pm, the WildCats make the short trip to their second home at the Horwich Leisure Centre when they face the challenge of the Nottingham Knights in the second round of the National Trophy.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.