A LENGTHY injury list ultimately cost the Cheshire Jets as they bravely battled and almost held on for victory over Guildford Heat at the Northgate Arena.

Colin O'Reilly's thigh strain, Matt Schneck's continuing ankle problems, Adam Brown's concussion, which required an overnight hospital stay after the Sheffield game on Friday and Bill Cole's 'flu ultimately caught up with the Jets as they let a winning position slip through their grasp.

After losing the tip-of, the Jets' walking wounded got off to a strong start as Adam Brown hit the floor with vigour, scoring a couple of early steals that helped the Jets build a four-point lead.

In executing their shots the Jets were on the money, launching their trademark fast breaks and making the Heat pay for poor defence.

But Creon Raftoupolous' men kept the scoreboard ticking over through Tayo Ogedengbe and Martelle McLemore at the other end to remain in touch throughout the opening period.

With a minute left however the Jets, who fielded four of their starting five with knocks or illness, had to withdraw Matt Schneck amid fears he had aggravated his ankle injury.

But in the second period Schneck returned to the bench and proved valuable as he helped stretch the Jets lead.

Colin O'Reilly was busy around the opposition basket, picking up rebound points and Dan Briglia hit a nice three-pointer before Schneck returned to the court midway through the session to hit a mini-run of four consecutive points to see the Jets go in at half-time 41-37 up.

After the break however the Heat drew level and increased the pressure on the home side.

Harsh refereeing calls and playing through the pain barrier caused frustration to build and when Schneck was the victim of a foul by Mike Martin the pair squared up and had to be separated as the Jets centre looked for retribution.

Soon afterwards Lavery received a technical foul after disputing a poor refereeing call but on the court his side shifted up a gear, O'Reilly putting up a three while Adam Brown hit a five-point run from two attacking plays.

The star man though was Bill Cole, in the ascendancy as he dunked on the Heat twice and bringing down rebounds for fun while blocking shot after shot.

Ogedengbe continued to hound the Jets however as he had an epic game with the ball and it was his shooting and his ability to win fouls that helped the Heat stay in touch through to the fourth quarter.

It was the fourth that proved pivotal as the Jets gradually lost their grip on the lead. Until then they had an answer to everything the Heat threw at them.

But the poor decisions of the referees in calling fouls against the Jets returned to haunt the Northgate Arena side.

Matt Schneck was unfairly penalised for a foul after making contact with Ogedengbe after the player had released his shot and within minutes Bill Cole had racked up his fifth foul and left the game having scored 19 points, brought down 12 rebounds and narrowly missed out on a triple-double with nine blocks.

He was replaced by Keith Page but in the next play the guard also fouled out bringing Phil Brandreth in with 46 seconds remaining.

The score was 76-72 to the Jets and they still looked likely to hold on for the win.

Ogedengbe scored two free throws and Lavery called a Jets time out. When the players returned to the court the head coach gestured to the crowd to get behind their team and they responded with one of the biggest noises heard this season at the Northgate.

But Ogedengbe brought his side level and the game went into overtime.

Again Ogedengbe scored to give the Heat the advantage before Adam Brown popped up again with a deuce before stealing ad breaking away to score two more and give the Jets the two-point advantage.

Mike Martin then received his marching orders for the Heat and delayed the game arguing about his foul count.

When play finally restarted Schneck extended the Jets' lead to four points but two scores from 32-point Ogedengbe levelled up for the Heat.

Martelle McLemore added one from the charity stripe and Schneck cancelled it out but Adam Brown then fouled out bringing Ryan Gallagher into the game.

The Jets were running out of players and the Heat took advantage winning fouls to take easy points at the line. With the score 90-87 to the Heat the Jets last hope of salvaging the game in the dying 30 seconds disappeared when Schneck fouled out, bringing Jason Helsby into the action.

And despite a score on the buzzer by Dan Briglia the Jets were left trailing 92-89.

Afterwards John Lavery was critical of his side's performance.

“I thought we were too soft on the offensive and defensive end. The boards absolutely killed us, they got a lot of rebounds off free throws and we've got to be a lot smarter than we were.

“I thought we had control of the game. But execution down the stretch and poor decisions cost us the game.

“You have to take what the referee gives you so you can't blame the foul count, you have to get on with the game.

“Colin was not 100%, Mat was only 50%, Bill's ill and Adam was in hospital on Friday but at the end of the day they came and put a kit on so that can't be an excuse.”