Reading Rockets visit the StormDome on Saturday evening, in a top-of-the-table clash that promises to be a thriller. Storm remain unbeaten and their closest challengers, the Rockets, now have four losses to their name after they fell to a defeat to Milton Keynes at the weekend.
Were Storm to overcome their National Cup nemeses on Saturday, the Rockets would be able to advance their overall league winning tally for the season to 19 at best, meaning Storm would be two victories away from securing their second NBL Division One title in three years, given they’d move to 17-0 and would also take the head-to-head record over the Rockets.
Ahead of the sides battling it out again this weekend, we take a look at some of the most memorable clashes contested between two of the NBL’s most successful sides over the last few years.
Reading Rockets 69-100 Hemel Storm (Saturday 8th October 2022) - KitKing Trophy semi-final.
In the early stages of an eventually famous season for Storm, they headed to Loddon Valley to take on the Rockets in the KitKing Trophy semi-final. They produced a dominant performance, offering an ominous indication at what was to come later that season in claiming a 31-point victory and securing their spot in the Surrey final.
Hakeem Sylla led the Storm with 26 points, while his partner in crime, Taylor Johnson, had 21. They’d go on to win that competition, bagging the first of four trophies to be lifted by captain Tayo Oyefusi in the unprecedented undefeated season of 2022/23.
Hemel Storm 89-86 Reading Rockets (Saturday 15th April 2023) - NBL Division One Playoff semi-final.
The sides would meet in knockout action again later that term, this time in the semi-final of the season-ending playoffs. With Storm looking to secure the quadruple and maintain their unbeaten record, they were given a stern test by the Rockets on this occasion, who came tantalisingly close to crushing their hosts’ hopes in front of a packed-out StormDome.
Remarkably, the Rockets’ stellar defence was able to prevent recently-confirmed Team GB international Aaryn Rai from troubling the scorers for the entirety of the first-half, and they headed into the fourth-quarter leading Storm 68-66. However, the vociferous home support was enough to pull their side through, picking up their 40th win of the campaign, 89-86 victors, and preparations for another trip to Manchester began - one which would yield their fourth piece of silverware of the season.
It certainly wasn’t plain-sailing, and Jermiah Jenkins missed a three-point effort to send the game into overtime, but Taylor Johnson’s 26 points meant the dream lived on for Storm, and they came out on top against the Rockets once more.
Reading Rockets 87-90 Hemel Storm (Sunday 10th March 2024) - NBL Division One.
Again it was Storm who proved victorious as they travelled to Reading in the second regular season meeting of 2023/24. The first was dominated by the Rockets, who were 84-92 winners at the StormDome, but a Darien Nelson-Henry-inspired Storm exacted some revenge at the Loddon Valley Leisure Centre.
He had 33, and the win topped off a double-winning weekend that would prove an ultimate turning point for Storm. After facing some struggles at the start of the season, adapting to a change of coach and a summer upheaval of their roster, Storm were beginning to find some flow and by overcoming title-chasers Derby Trailblazers, thanks to a Veron Eze buzzer-beater, and then the Rockets on back-to-back nights, they now truly believed they were capable of going all the way and rounding off a season of transition with some silverware.
They flew out of the blocks, but had to fight off a late comeback from their hosts as the fatigue began to set in, and eventually ran out to a three-point, 87-90, win. That wasn’t to be the last time the sides met that season, though…
Hemel Storm 87-84 Reading Rockets (Sunday 28th April 2024) - NBL Division One Playoff final.
Having come to blows at the penultimate stage of the season the year before, the Rockets went one further and found themselves faced with a Storm once more, as the sides met to fight for the 2023/24 playoff title.
As expected, it was a tight and tense affair, and again the Rockets missed a golden chance to send Storm home distraught. But this time it was Elijah Maynard who saw his shot at the end fail to connect, and Storm sealed a successful defence of their playoff crown.
Storm were making a habit of surviving late scares, defying buzzer-beaters from Jenkins the previous year and an attempt from Bradford Dragons’ Justin Williams just a week prior in the semi-final. As they took up a familiar spot in the trophy-lifting ceremony, however, it’s fair to say they didn’t care.
Captain Sam Newman put in an MVP-winning performance, 18 points and eight assists, and with Storm yet again putting paid to the Rockets’ hopes, they must have thought they’d got the wood over their opponents from the south. If indeed they did, they were proved wrong at the same location less than a year later…
Hemel Storm 83-108 Reading Rockets (Sunday 19th January 2025) – National Cup Final.
It was deja-vu as the two teams reconvened at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester earlier this year, but the Rockets finally got the better of their recent scourges.
Storm, undefeated in the league of course, were looking to make up for falling at the semi-final hurdle of the KitKing Trophy to the MK Breakers, whom the Rockets await in the final.
Perhaps the side from Hemel were slight favourites thanks to their league form, but they were outclassed and outhustled by a determined and high-quality Reading Rockets.
Mark Clark’s men couldn’t find their flow and replicate their earlier regular-season win, but nothing can be taken away from a masterful performance from their opponents. Justin Hopkins had 30 and was superb, but now all eyes will turn to Saturday’s fixture as league honours are on the line.
Storm won the reverse Division One matchup by six in Reading, so defeat in a close-fought tie could still see them keep hold of the all-important head-to-head record. They will, however, be entirely focused on picking up the win that would take them a couple of wins away from being crowned champions.
Tickets are available via Fanbase, with Saturday’s 7 o’clock tip-off at the StormDome already nearly sold out. Grab yours now and make sure you don’t miss out, with the UH Storm’s Division Three side also in action at the earlier time of 4pm.
Written by Callum Humphrey