A THRILLING scoring burst from Steve Vaughan helped Lancashire Spinners to a third straight victory as they beat Leicester Warriors 87-72 on Saturday.

But the Castle Leisure Centre-based side were unable to make it four on the bounce as they fell to an 80-71 defeat at home to Reading Rockets in the quarter-finals of the National Trophy the following day.

Against Leicester, Vaughan racked up 11 points and eight rebounds, including six offensive boards, in just 15 minutes.

And in a 41-second spell, the forward, who hadn’t recorded double figures in 16 games, scored seven straight points to help the Spinners open up a 40-28 lead just before half time.

“I really attacked the boards, which allowed me to get easy baskets and help the team,” said Vaughan.

Steven Gayle added 17 points to top the Spinners scoring charts on the day, recording four of the team’s 10 three-pointers.

Lancashire rushed out to an early 7-0 lead as Mike Bernard and Alex Roberts scored on back-to-back possessions. Leicester failed to score until the eight-minute mark and only had four field goals in the opening quarter.

An 8-0 run for the visitors reduced the deficit to 14-10 but Gayle knocked down a 3-pointer ending a two-and-a-half-minute scoring drought for the Spinners, who led 44-31 at half time.

They began the second half with three turnovers as Leicester pulled back six points.

Andre Gayle, who scored 13 points, hit Lancashire’s sixth three of the game to restore the double-digit advantage.

Two free throws for Leicester cut the lead to five with 3mins 36secs remaining in the third quarter before Lancashire scored five unanswered points to pull away.

Their seventh victory of the National Basketball League campaign moved Spinners up to sixth place in Division One.

They were well placed to stretch their good recent run against Reading, leading 61-59 early in the fourth quarter, but the visitors, who are fourth in the league, regained the lead by scoring on consecutive possessions and pulled away late in the game.

“It was just one of those days when down the stretch we needed some luck and just didn’t get any,” said Lancashire coach Neal Hopkins.

The Bury-based club finished the group stages of the National Trophy with a perfect 6-0 record but were unlucky to be matched against the 2014 champions in the last eight.

Steven Gayle led the scoring for the Spinners with 23 points, while Connor Murtagh added 17 and Mike Bernard finished with 14 and eight rebounds.