SOLENT stars missed a good opportunity to kick-start their disappointing season but remain winless after crashing to another home league defeat.

Their 81-87 loss to struggling InterBasket London at Fleming Park leaves Mark Scott's team bottom of the National League Conference.

The game saw an encouraging debut from point guard Duane Laight, who impressed with a man-of-the-match performance having arrived from Thames Valley Tigers.

Southampton-based Laight entered the game with five minutes left in the first quarter and displayed aggression and quickness both in offence and defence.

With Laight controlling the floor, Solent gained a 33-23 lead midway through the second quarter - they were still ahead 43-40 at half-time.

But when he got into foul trouble early in the third quarter, InterBasket's control of the boards started to pay-off and they gradually pulled away from the Stars.

Chris Harper and Toby Tripalin both led the scoring for the Stars with 24 points apiece while coach Mark Scott agreed that Laight's 18 points and numerous assists and steals was a good sign for the future.

Scott said: "Duane was pretty impressive tonight. He gave us another dimension and another weapon, being a true point guard that enables us to relieve Chris Harper to run the shooting guard position."

Scott himself only played a couple of minutes, preferring to analyse from the bench. He added: "The first and second quarters were great but they broke our back in the third.

"That was down to a lack of team defence. We picked up a lot of petty fouls and were selfish as a team.

"There are areas of our game which have improved but there are also areas which have not. We need to work on changing our defences from man-to-man to zone.

"These defeats are going to be the making of these guys for years to come. They have to go through the blues and look at themselves to see if they want to do this.

"It's good we're disappointed about not winning as it shows desire."

Solent Stars scorers: Clayton Milner 4pts, Duane Laight 18, Chris Sheldrick 4, Chris St Omer 2, Dave McKay 3, Chris Harper 24, Gareth Keene 2, Toby Tripalin 24.