IT was double despair for Lancashire Spinners on the road last weekend as they suffered two narrow defeats.

Mark Rangeley scored 14 points for the Bury-based side at Reading Rockets on Saturday but exited the game with a cut below his eye just 22 seconds into the fourth quarter.

And while the forward was on the bench, Reading outscored Lancashire 28-17 en route to an 81-80 victory.

“The bubble burst when we lost Mark,” said Lancashire coach Neal Hopkins. “It was a real tough one – the worst kind of loss.”

Rangeley added: “It was so frustrating. I felt in rhythm and felt I was making a positive impact so it was hard to go out at such a key time.”

Steven Gayle scored 23 points to lead the Spinners and Kyle Carey added 14, while Connor Murtagh had 12 points and eight rebounds.

Lancashire trailed by six early on but climbed in front 27-24 following Rangeley’s triple in the second quarter.

Reading’s Danny Carter hit the game-winning shot with under a minute remaining.

The Spinners slipped to eighth in the National Basketball League after losing 96-60 at Hemel Storm on Sunday, falling to back-to-back league defeats for the first time since November.

They dominated the offensive glass, received big contributions off the bench and finally saw consistency from the outside – but it fell short on the scoreboard.

Lancashire got 23 points from Gayle but again lost a fourth-quarter lead as they were outscored 14-5.

“Everything seems to be against us at the moment,” said coach Hopkins. “We have to make our own luck and we didn’t do that.”

Rangeley and Murtagh added 18 points each and combined for 19 rebounds for the Spinners, who recorded 12 three-pointers.

“We had some lapses on the defensive end and there were crucial shots we just didn’t make,” Rangeley added.

Mike Bernard, who had 19 points and 11 rebounds (five offensive), gave the Spinners an 88-87 lead but Simon Kearney’s jumper with 4mins 36secs left put Hemel ahead for good.

Bode Adeluola scored a game-high 25 points to lead third-placed Hemel, while Tom Adorian grabbed 13 boards to go with 20 points.