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Third no charm for Birmingham        Pertemps Bullets Birmingham have finished in third place in Group A of the Open stages of the NEBL after losing 80-70 to Pepinster in their final game of the initial phase. Bullets, who advance with a 5-3 record, started well as Rashod Johnson and Rob Paternostro sparked their side into a 25-42 lead by the middle of the second quarter. However strong defense helped the Belgians to get back to 38-48 by half-time and in the third period, they continued theirs comeback, thanks to an efficient zone defense. Finally the Belgium team took the lead at the 27th minute and made it 58-54 at the end of the 3rd period.  Birmingham couldn't do anything to stop the Belgian spurt led by Marcus Faison and his fantastic 3-point shooting.   Bullets coach Lance.Randall paid tribute to Pepinster's resilience. "We started the game very well with a good defense.  But in the second half the Belgians took it over. It forced us to commit a lot of errors. Faison has been very good at 3-point shooting despite our zone defense." Birmingham, along with London Towers, will now wait to learn the draw for the second stage which commences in late January.

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