LANCASHIRE Spinners face league rivals London Lituanica in a decisive game for the Division Two regular season title on Sunday.

The Bury-based basketball team have just two blemishes on their record in league play, including a loss to Sunday’s opponents but Spinners got the better of Lituanica in the Patrons Cup final in February, winning by a 32-point margin.

And in order to add regular season champions to their accolades, Spinners will need to defeat London by a minimum of four-points to win on head-to-head.

Player-coach Steven Gayle said, “We’ve got to play a complete forty-minutes. If the guys take care of their job then we will win comfortably.”

“In Patrons Cup, we wanted to beat them because we had already lost to them – now the tides have turned because they were embarrassed and they’ll have more drive. We need to take that away from them early.”

Lancashire had halftime advantages in both previous meetings but a sluggish eight-point third quarter led to an 81-78 loss in January while a strong second and fourth quarter resulted in a lopsided 118-86 win.

Over their last five games, the team has made a habit of coming out strong after intermission, averaging 23.8 points in third quarter and 47.8 points over the final 20 minutes but defeating Lituanica for a second time will require more than periodic spells of good play.

“They’re a very strong team. They run their offence well and get a lot of points off second chance opportunities, which, for them, are higher percentage shots,” said Gayle.

“When we beat them in the Patrons Cup, once we controlled the rebounds, we limited them to one shot possessions and gave them shots they didn’t want to take. If we can do that again, we will open up the game a lot quicker.”

The prospect of a winner-take-all game involving the top two teams in the division excites the former Manchester Giant who claimed it’s like the league planned for this to happen all along.

“The thought of who wins the game wins the league – there’s no better way for it to be settled.”