Ben Thomas admitted his depleted Cheshire Phoenix side 'ran out of steam' in their 87-81 defeat at London City Royals.

The Nix travelled to the capital with a reduced seven-man roster, with Jordan Session handed a one-match suspension by the club for 'unsportsmanlike behaviour' in the victory over London City Royals three nights earlier.

Despite travelling light, the Nix dominated much of the game before the Lions roared back late in the contest.

The Nix made a fast start inside with Momcilo Latinovic and Dii Jon Allen-Jordan helping them to a 27-22 lead inside the first quarter.

The visitors' lead was stretched to 46-40 at the midway point, but the Lions stepped up their defence in the second half, holding their opponents to 13 in the third before taking the lead early in the fourth.

Cheshire struggled from the foul line, going 13 of 25 in the contest, while Lion forward Brandon Peel as he netted a treble of three-pointers in quick succession

Peel finished with 22 points along with 13 rebounds, while Ladarius Tabb also added a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds to steer the home side to victory.

Reflecting on performance, Thomas said: "The fact that we travelled without Jordan for the game was really telling from our point of view.

"It put us on the back foot and limited the changes we wanted to make in the game.

"We started the game well enough with a good intensity but we couldn't sustain that for the full contest.That's not surprising when you travel with a roster of seven.

"From a technical side of things we could have done better too. We missed 12 free throws ourselves during the game and there were 19 turnovers.

"We tired late on and it felt like we threw the game away, rather than London dominating us."

Sessions is set to return for the Nix in Friday night's BBL Cup game against Sheffield Sharks.