Power forward Sean Lampley rediscovered his mojo as the Melbourne Tigers levelled the NBL grand final series at 1-1 with a 104-93 home victory over the Sydney Kings tonight.

After being held to a miserable haul of four points and two rebounds in the series opener two days ago, Lampley fed off the energy off a capacity home crowd at the State Netball Centre.

He finished with 21 points, leading a potent, four-pronged offensive threat for the home team.

David Barlow had a game-high 24 points, league MVP Chris Anstey had 21 and Dave Thomas chimed in with 18.

The Kings were held to just 14 points in the final quarter, a complete turnaround from game one when they had been much stronger in the closing stages.

Point guard Dontaye Draper had 17 points for Sydney, while Isiah Victor had 14 and Mark Worthington 13.

The Kings scored 11 unanswered points to lead 35-29 at the end of a high-standard, high-intensity first quarter.

All 10 Kings players scored in the opening term, while the Tigers had eight scorers in the opening 12 minutes.

The Kings extended their run to 13-0 when Victor converted two foul shots to start the second quarter before Thomas stopped the rot with a jump shot.

Sydney held the lead throughout the second quarter although the Tigers finished the stronger to trail 57-56 at halftime.

Lampley had a game-high 14 points at the long interval, while Glen Saville had 12 for Sydney including two of three three-pointers.

The Tigers shot an impressive 55.6 per cent from the field in the first half, while Sydney was converting at 50 per cent.

The intensity went up another notch during a see-sawing third quarter when the lead changed seven times.

Draper lit up to score Sydney’s last 10 points of the quarter, but Stephen Hoare ensured the home side would take an 80-79 lead into the final quarter with a buzzer-beating jump shot.

The other star of the quarter was Tigers swingman Barlow, whose 10 points included two triples and a spectacular dunk.

Sydney centre Ian Crosswhite finally broke a scoreless drought of more than two-and-a-half minutes at both ends to start the final term by hitting one of two foul shots.

But shortly afterwards, Crosswhite was called for a costly technical foul for abusing a referee, allowing Anstey to break the deadlock with a pair of foul shots.

The Tigers dominated the remainder of the match to set up a series-defining game three at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Sunday.

© AAP 2012

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