Kyle Gupton’s hands ran hot again as the Tamworth Thunderbolts men staged a late final quarter fightback to eclipse the Coffs Harbour Suns 77-72 in their State League men’s clash in Tamworth on Saturday night.
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It was far from the emphatic 89-57 success of their earlier meeting with the Suns leading 70-66 with just under five minutes to play.
Chris Skilton edged the Bolts within one before Gupton shot them into a lead they were never headed from.
He fittingly scored the last points of what coach John Ireland labelled “a pretty tough and physical game” and one they were happy to come out the right side of.
“It was a pretty scrappy game but the guys came up with the big moments when they needed to,” he said.
Gupton led the way with 34 points – his highest score for the Thunderbolts – and was well supported by Skilton with 14.
Ireland did have to nurse a couple of players through after hitting some early foul trouble.
“Both our bigs – Scott McGann and Rhys Chillingworth – had three (fouls) at half-time. It hurt our rotations and probably some of our offensive flow,” he said.
He said Coffs to their credit kept on coming at them and made some big shots, but felt his side weren’t consistent enough with their execution and weren’t aggressive enough. They were content to settle for the jump and three point shots rather than look to attack the basket.
Earlier in the night the Thunderbolts women were beaten by the Suns 97-57.
Taylor Skelton topped the scoring with 19 points while Amelia Dadd notched 15 and Amiee Diebold 10.