page_title: Portsmouth F.C. (basketball)
section_title: 1986-87 season
hierarchical_section_title: Portsmouth F.C. (basketball) / 1986-87 season
caption_attribution_description: English: Portsmouth FC Basketball Club v Kingston Kings, National Cup final, Royal Albert Hall, London, December 15th 1986. Portsmouth's Alan Cunningham (white vest, dribbling ball) attacks the Kingston basket.
context_page_description: Portsmouth F.C. Basketball Club are a British professional basketball team based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, that played in the top league of UK basketball from 1985-88. They won the league championship in the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons and also reached four major cup finals, including those of all three main domestic knockout competitions in 1987-88.
  Virtually all home games were played at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, which had bleacher seating on either side plus a balcony around one end and one side. Part of the side balcony was reserved for directors and guests. Two matches in 1986-87 and two in 1984-85 were hosted by Havant Leisure Centre, one in 1984-85 by
  Fleming Park Leisure Centre in Eastleigh and one in 1984-85 by Winchester Recreation Centre.
context_section_description: The carpet, original kits and caretaker coach had gone when action resumed, as had many of the team. Slaughter, Dassie, Wells, Bailey, Harris and Hayles departed, while Lloyd became player-coach. New faces were American Danny Williams, Mike Spaid from Hemel & Watford Royals, and Karl Tatham.  Trevor Anderson was in the squad at the start but his number 4 vest was later filled by American Lawrence Held.
  The new team began with a 94-87 home win over Leicester on 20 September 1986, but they suffered a setback at home to Kingston a week later. Steve Nelson missed a free throw with the scores tied at 93 at the end of the game, and the visitors pulled away to win 106-97 in overtime despite a 32-point haul from Colin Irish.
  Eleven league wins in a row kept them well in contention for the title but the run ended with an 89-74 defeat in the return game at Leicester on 9 January 1987.
  Six more wins followed before another decisive clash with Kingston at Tolworth on 11 February. Portsmouth needed to win by at least ten points to win the 'head to head' contest with Kingston and move to the top of the league. Colin Irish hit two three-pointers in the opening seconds and Portsmouth ran out 106-88 winners.
  The title was confirmed when Alan Cunningham made a lay-up with two seconds left to secure a 90-88 victory away to Hemel & Watford at the Dacorum Leisure Centre in Hemel Hempstead on 18 February.
  The trophy was presented after the final home game two nights later, an 85-90 defeat by Manchester United. All the seating tickets were sold in advance and the balcony 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. A pair of free-throws from Cunningham, a floater from Williams and a Spaid jump shot dragged Portsmouth back to 91-87 with 58 seconds to go, but that was the end of their challenge as Martin Clark fi
caption: Alan Cunningham (in white, with ball) attacks the Kingston basket during the National Cup final, 15 December 1986
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP Scanjet 2400", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "130", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:01:04 15:52:24", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "977", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "787", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}