Jeff Jones' team were playing catch-up from the off in the semi-final first leg at the Amaechi Centre and a narrow deficit turned into a 20-point chasm in the third quarter.
That margin would have given Magic no hope in the return at Reading on Saturday, but a fourth-quarter revival saw them trail their rivals by 78-71 at the buzzer and give their coach some cause for optimism.
Impossible
Jones, who had hoped to take a lead to Berkshire, said: "It would have been impossible at 20 points, but the boys showed a lot of character to get it back under 10. We were too anxious and edgy to start with but the fourth quarter was much better. Steve Hastings did a fantastic job on their danger man Ryan Williams and Stefan Gill had a great fourth quarter. Now we have some sort of chance."
Andy Thomson, who top scored with 24, lead the Magic comeback with some nerveless free-throws and a three-point play which narrowed the gap to 10.
Then Stefan Gill drove the length of the court to make it 76-71 and give the home team hope.
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Fred The Red, Urmston (21/04/2007 at 22:20)