TVL Teesside Mohawks became five stars on Sunday when they clinched their fifth consecutive National Trophy.

The Teesside stars took the title - basketball's equivalent of football's FA Cup - in Birmingham on Sunday with a hard-earned 84-76 win against Worthing Thunder.

But the glory certainly had to be earned as Worthing provided stiff opposition, coming at the Mohawks from the off and led the Teesside club for most of the match.

Mohawks were forced to fight-back from being 12 points down at one stage which was in stark contrast to the club's two National Trophy wins in 2001 and 2002 when Tony Hanson's side had secured easy wins.

Captain, Jason Swaine, finally put Teesside ahead four minutes from the end, but Ralph Bucci was the star man, notching 26 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.

In doing so he picked up his fourth Most Valuable Player award in five years and joining the American in double figures were EJ Harrrison (18 points), Swaine (16) and Lijah Perkins (12).

Another star performer was Angolan, Efuana Zambo, who was making his Mohawks debut.

General manager, Trevor Lowes, said: "A final is never a good time to introduce a newcomer, but he proved himself when he got out there and started rebounding.

"Everyone else seemed to respond to it and began blocking shots, stealing and rebounding and we started to look as though we wanted to win.

Hanson says he never thought a fifth National Trophy was out of reach.

He said: "We always thought that if we could stay close to them and not let them get too far ahead, we could make decisive move in the second half and we did it.

"We are the champions and we are hungry to defend out treble. We don't expect it to be a cakewalk because other teams are equally hungry.

"But anyone who wants to take any of our silverware is going to have to really fight for it."

Teesside Mohawks scorers: Lijah Perkins 12, James Nicholson 10, Jason Swaine 16, Efuana Zambo 2, Ralph Bucci 26, EJ Harrison 18.

Worthing Thunder scorers: Marvin Addy 7, Daniel Hildreth 7, Nick O'Hara-be 7, Rani Malik 12, Gaylon Moore 18, Jerry Lavoris 26, Damien Harris 1.