began to fill up two hours before tip-off. Third place in the league in 1985–86 had given Portsmouth a place in the Korac Cup, and their first venture into European competition brought a 96–76 home win over Yugoslavian side Sibenka on 1 October 1986. The return a week later ended in an 89–62 defeat and a seven-point loss on aggregate. They went much further in the National Cup. Their 121–81 home win over second-tier side Lambeth Topcats, with 24 points from Alan Cunningham, was followed by a comfortable 127–99 success at Hemel & Watford which took them to another Channel 4 semi-final day at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre on 30 November. Karl Tatham's lay-up in the last few seconds saw Portsmouth squeeze past Calderdale Explorers 82–78 to set up a final against holders Kingston at the Royal Albert Hall on 15 December. Colin Irish was forced to miss the game with a knee injury, and in his absence Danny Williams led Portsmouth's first half scoring with 11 points as Kingston took a 51–41 advantage into the interval in front of a crowd of 4,200. For the fifth and final year in a row Channel 4 showed the second half live, and Alan Cunningham got their coverage off to a flying start with a dunk straight from the tip-off. Baskets were traded in the early stages of the second half and with 12 minutes 20 seconds left Kingston led 64–56. Then a Steve Nelson jumper, a bank shot from Joel Moore, another jumper from Danny Williams and an 18-foot effort from Nelson suddenly drew Portsmouth level at 64 and forced Kingston coach Kevin Cadle to call a time-out with 10 minutes 47 seconds remaining. After the resumption a three-pointer from Moore and a jumper from Karl Tatham kept Portsmouth in touch, trailing only 71–69, but then Dan Davis, Doug Lloyd and Steve Bontrager stretched the lead again to 78–69 and Portsmouth coach Dan Lloyd asked for a time-out with 7 minutes 37 seconds on the clock. Kenny Scott's jumper from the corner then stretched Kingston's lead to 11 points, and although Mike Spaid, Cunningham, Tatham, Moore and Williams kept the scoreboard ticking over for Portsmouth, they could not get back to within one basket of their opponents. Cunningham's put-back made it 86–81 with four minutes left, but Doug Lloyd's three-pointer and Davis's bank shot then gave Kingston a ten-point cushion.