LANCASHIRE Spinners advanced to the Division Two finals in front of a raucous home crowd, easily overpowering Ipswich Basketball 95-78.

The Castle Leisure Centre-based basketball club turned 20 Ipswich turnovers into 24 points and were led offensively by player-coach Steven Gayle’s 23 points and seven assists.

Josh Houghton added 20 points and Mark Rangeley, who started in place of the banned Aitor Estrada, weighed in with 18 points and seven rebounds.

Spinners trailed for a total of 19 seconds before scoring 15 unanswered points after Ipswich grabbed a lead 2-0 on their first possession – and that was the game.

Gayle said: “It probably was one of the best defensive performances because we acknowledged it early and we’ve seen what they were trying to do earlier on and took it away.

“It was that blatant that all the wanted to do was get the ball into the post and they didn't go away from it.”

The hosts had 12 total takeaways as the defensive end took precedent over a normally offensive-minded team.

That offence did back up a 15-2 start with a 14-5 run to begin the second period, allowing Lancashire to take a 50-29 lead into the half in a game they were never in danger of losing.

Centre Steve Vaughan and Rangeley limited the effectiveness of Ipswich big players, Leigh Greenan and Tom Sadler.

Vaughan held Greenan, who was coming off a 24-point quarter-final game, to just six points and six rebounds in 31 minutes in a truly physical battle for position down in the paint.

“Our start is normally our downfall and I feel that the intensity we brought from the start, the shots we made and the defence we played won it for us,” said Vaughan.

And although Spinners were outscored 42-32 in the paint, they hit 13 three-point baskets while Ipswich only managed six, with five coming off the hands of Sam Newman.

Newman recorded a double-double for Ipswich with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.

And Rangeley and Tawio Ogunneye dazzled an approving home crowd with two dunks as exclamation points in the victory.