seconds on the clock Kalpatrick Wells dunked to make it 114–111 to Portsmouth and drew a foul in the process. Kingston instantly called a time-out. When the teams returned to the court amid a frenzied atmosphere, Portsmouth allowed victory to slip away. Wells missed his free-throw after the foul, then with 50 seconds remaining Joel Moore fouled Bontrager as he launched a three-point shot. Bontrager made all three from the line to tie the score at 114. On Portsmouth's next offence Dan Lloyd moved deep into Kingston territory, only for Bontrager to steal the ball near the endline. Bontrager dribbled into the Portsmouth half, set up a diversionary play then drove through the lane and shot off the glass to put Kingston 114–116 ahead, their first lead in more than half an hour of play. With five seconds left Portsmouth worked the ball up the court to Irish, who was fouled just outside the three-point line. He hurled up a shot which barely found the backboard in an effort to have it called a shooting foul, but the officials deemed that the foul was committed before the shot. With Kingston in team fouls the rules at the time dictated that Irish, Portsmouth's top scorer on the night with 34 points, would have a 'one and one' – make the first free-throw to receive a second – with one second on the clock. Irish's first shot bounced twice on the rim, players of both sides fought for the rebound and eventually Clark pawed the ball to safety as the buzzer sounded. The Portsmouth players disappeared straight out of the arena as the Kingston contingent celebrated on their court. Within three days two more defeats at Brunel Uxbridge and Manchester United had ended Portsmouth's title bid, with United ultimately going on to win the crown. Portsmouth won three of their last four league games to finish third, but Danny Palmer resigned and Alan Cunningham took on a caretaker coach role for the remainder of the campaign. Portsmouth played sixth placed Birmingham Bullets in the National Championship – commonly known as the playoffs – quarter-finals, and having opened with a 92–86 away win they had two chances at home to secure the best-of-three series and a trip to Wembley Arena for the 'final four' weekend on 21 and 22 March. But 85–93 and 91–95 defeats ended their hopes and left them with just