LEICESTER suffered Knockout Cup heartache after going down 59-31 at King’s Lynn on Wednesday night.
The Watling JCB Lions started the meeting well, though, with three straight wins including a 4-2 in heat three which extended their aggregate lead to eight points.
But that was as good as it got for the visitors as the Stars secured nine heat advantages in the remaining 12 heats which clinched their place in the Semi-Final.
Lions’ reserve Todd Kurtz said: “It was definitely a disappointing result, and I think the final score shows that. But King’s Lynn are a good side around here.
“The track was great too so we don’t really have any excuses because they just rode it better than us, making starts and we weren’t, so we are going home with nothing.
“The string of five 5-1s in a row was pretty much the final nail in the coffin really. Obviously, we had way too many heats go against us, and we paid the price for it but fair play to King’s Lynn because they did what they had to do.
“Rory Schlein is on fire at the moment and we were pretty lucky that we had him in the team other the score could have been even worse.
“There are seven guys in the team, though, and some of us didn’t pull their weight. It was just one of those days and we just need to write this one off, and bounce back at the next meeting.”
KING’S LYNN 59: Robert Lambert 17, Ty Proctor 11+2, Lewis Kerr 11+2, Josh Auty 9+3, Thomas Jorgensen 8+1, Kasper Andersen 3+2, Niels-Kristian Iversen r/r.
LEICESTER 31: Rory Schlein 12, Ricky Wells 6, Kyle Howarth 4, Todd Kurtz 4, Kyle Newman 2+1, James Sarjeant 2, Krystian Pieszczek 1.
King’s Lynn win 101-79 on aggregate.
