Brighton Cougars picked a bad day to play one of their worst games of the year and saw their NLB play-off hopes end in conclusive style.

Cougars missed too many free throws and easy shots to stay with the undefeated Liverpool squad and fell by a resounding 88-58 margin in the division two quarter finals.

Coach Mike Blatchford was bemused. He said: "Whether it was the long bus trip, the lousy officiating, intimidation or the gods of basketball, we stunk.

"We missed 24 free throws, I don't know how many lay-ups and just got whalloped.

"I would have to say the guys tried, they worked hard but the decisions weren't good and the execution wasn't any better."

Liverpool were always going to be hot favourites to go through and they used a 14-2 run late in the opening period to build up a 24-8 lead at the first break.

Cougars brought the margin back to nine after outscoring Liverpool 15-8 to open the second period.

They were not able get any closer though as Liverpool kept the pressure on.

Blatchford felt the game was inconsistently officiated, with 59 fouls called in total. Cougars went to the line 43 times compared to 30 for the hosts.

Gareth Morgans was Cougars' top scorer with 18 points while James Ashcombe added 12 and Emmanuel Laroche and Ramy Malik each chipped in with eight.

Given their personnel, Cougars have fallen short of expectations this season and Blatchford admits they have plenty to work on for the next campaign.

He said: "We need to mature as a basketball team. There were too many instances this season where we weren't able to suck it up and get through a tough stretch.

"We have good players but they aren't quite a team all the time."

IT is decision time forAndy Smith after an impressive season with Kerr Vance Academy in the States. Smith, from Littlehampton, hopes to make his next step by impressing in an All-Star game next week.

He has already competed in his area All-Star game, scoring 44 points and coming second in the dunk and three-point shooting contests. He was also named county player-of-the-year.

Smith said: "I have five great schools coming to watch me play and a few days after that I hope to announce my college choice."