Rossendale Raptors moved up to second place in the National League Division 4 North table after overcoming the leaders Stockport Falcons in a crunch clash.
The Raptors took control in the third period and never looked back to win comfortable 94-79 against a team who had previously only been defeated once this season.
Raptors head coach Jim Fry said after the Haslingden Sports Centre clash: "It’s terrific to see the players really starting to gel as a team.
"This is a new experience for us as a club and our first year in the National League. We’re playing well and beating the best teams in the league.
"Having said that, we’re not complacent as we know we’ve played all the better teams at home, with home support.
"In the second half of the season we will have to go to Burnley, Stockport, Middles-brough and Bradford and win on the road.
"I think that we can do that, if we keep playing as we are then we’ve got every chance of winning the league."
This was always going to be a crunch game with Stockport leading the league.
There was also a last minute panic in the Raptors camp as several key players, including Romanian forward Jon Slabu were injured or not available, but by the start of the game the squad was more or less intact if not fully fit.
In front of a good crowd the Raptors started cautiously with their usual 3–2 zone defence.
This kept Stockport away from the basket but their outside shooting was superb with five of their players hitting their first shots from distance.
Raptors stayed in touch with good conversions from Estrada and Slabu, before playmaker Gayle penetrated a tough Stockport defence for several exquisite lay-ups.
The scoring from both teams was amazing in the first quarter with the lead switching more than 20 times and the quarter finished with an amazing 56 points being scored, shared evenly between both teams at 28-28.
The quality continued in the second quarter although Raptors defence found it difficult to fight the screens set against them and also missed some easy chances.
Defence was changed to a man-to-man in this period and several players were exposed against the talented Stockport players.
But Raptors dug deep and, with Gayle creating opportunities for others as well as himself, Slabu, Kornecki and Graham cashed in to keep Raptors in the game.
Meanwhile Kuczaj and Collister were accumulating points for the opposition and at the end of an intense first half the game was yet again tied at 53 apiece – an amazing score more akin to the NBA.
Gayle for Raptors finished the half with 31 points – the kind of score any player would be happy with in the whole of a game.
Raptors coaches Jim Fry and John Allerston were clear and concise in their instructions to the Raptors during the half-time break.
And the team responded in the third period with an excellent start, scoring on the first four offences without reply, causing the Stockport coach to call a time-out to try and stop the rot.
From this stage on Raptors had the upper hand despite a few lapses, with Slabu on 14 points and Graham on six points leading the scoring in the second half.
Gayle was relaxing now and orchestrating the game for others. As the game wore on Stockport ran out of ideas and after a good first half could only muster 15 points in the third quarter and had two of their better players in foul trouble.
Going into the last quarter with a lead of eight points, all that was needed was control and a cool head from the Rossendale.
Stockport however had no reply, and only scored 10 points in the quarter. Meanwhile Raptors continued to score through various players and finished up winning comfortably.
Graham, Slabu and Gayle each bagged seven rebounds each and Gayle had 13 assists.
Unselfish team contributions from Ngara, Kornecki, Lindsay, Estrada, Platt and Cowell made the difference and Raptors look forward to the New Year after their game against bottom of the table Oldham tomorrow.
Raptors top scorers were; Gayle 43, Slabu 20, and Graham 12.