The Wimmera Roadways Hornets were one point down with 12 seconds to go when point guard Cam Bruce drove to the basket and was knocked to the ground.

Despite the contact the referees could not find a foul and the Thunder was able to hold on for the win.

Hornets coach Steve Bruce said the crucial decision was symbolic of the match in which the burly Thunder side gave the Hornets plenty of `attention'.

``I think they had the police waiting outside the stadium because we almost stole the match,'' Bruce said. ``Any time we went to the basket they put bodies on us.

``Cam came in at half time with a hand-mark on his knee where he had been slapped. But after the game we spoke about how that match was indicative of how the playoffs would be so it was good in the sense of getting a warm-up for the playoffs.''

The Thunder was stunned by the Hornets in the opening term when the Hornets got off to a 16-0 start but the Thunder responded by bringing crack-shooter Brent Radoslovic onto the court. He proceeded to shoot the lights out, clocking up 29 of his 41 points in the first half.

He shot 16 of 37 field goals including eight three-pointers.

``We had been in a match-up zone and Radoslovic shot us out of that zone single-handedly,'' Bruce said.

``We did a pretty good job on him in the second half, he didn't have that many points.''

Bruce left his starting unit of Tim Pickert, Shaun Bruce, Cam Bruce, Ben New and 100-gamer Ben Lewis on the court for the whole second half because of the height of the Thunder side. All clocked up more than 40 minutes on court.

``I felt like we could not match-up well defensively with them otherwise,'' he said. ``We had Matt Lovel and Jake Lloyd on the bench but I felt they didn't match-up well with the Thunder side.''Lewis put in an excellent performance in his milestone game with 24 points, eight rebounds and numerous blocks. Pickert had 20 points and five assists. Shaun Bruce had 18 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists to just miss out on a triple-double while centre Ben New was again strong for the Hornets with 19 rebounds.