The win against a Kent side containing four former Leopards proved to be straightforward as Robert Youngblood’s side as they led for all but the opening couple of minutes.

Howard Crawford led the Big Cats for the fourth straight game with 20, while Carl Josey added 12 as Robert Youngblood rested his starting players from late in the third period. The rest of the points were evenly shared around, with Ioan Nickson had a season-high eight, as all 12 players saw at least ten minutes of action.

Crusaders’ Ogunseye scored either side of a Kris Clark three point play to give the home side a 4-3 lead, but seven Crawford points and a trey from Ish Fontaine helped Leopards head into the first break with a 14-13 lead. Fontaine buried a three to open the second period, and with Shaun Durant adding five points and Josey four, the Big Cats gradually extended their lead to go into the locker room 40-32 ahead.

Crusaders’ coach L Guil didn’t help his side’s cause as picked up a technical foul after Josey had beaten the shot clock with a long two. Andre Lockhart sunk both foul shots and Courtney Van Beest then scored from inbound to complete a six point offence.

The third quarter proved to be the clincher for the visitors as they outscored Crusaders 25-11 with Josey hitting back-to-back threes and Crawford adding another seven points to his tally.

Clark’s basket with two minutes of the period remaining proved to be the last time any of the starting five saw any action, and a score from George Naiwo sent them into the final break 65-42 ahead.

Van Beest made it a 26 point game early in the fourth period and back-to-back treys from Nickson kept Leopards comfortably ahead before the Welsh international wrapped Leopards’ 13^th league win of the season up.

Cabot led the hosts with 14, with Ogunseye and former Leopard Bradley Wilkinson adding nine apiece.

1995 – Leopards 95 Worthing Bears 93

2002 – Jets win thriller

DG London Leopards Kool Kats 92 (32,54,75)
Rico Alderson 23, Maurice Robinson 23, Jason Kimbrough 20
Chester Jets 93 (27,41,69)
James Hamilton 27, John Thomas 20, Calvin Davis 15
BBL Championship @ Brentwood Centre
Chester Jets came from behind to win the first of two games in as many days, defeating DG London Leopards Kool Kats 93-92 in the BBL Championship on Friday night.
Leopards enjoyed the better of the first half, leading 54-41 at half-time. Chester fought back at the end of the third with a 15-3 tear to reduce the arrears to six points at 75-69.They then levelled the score two and a half minutes into the fourth quarter at 80-80 and the teams traded baskets thereafter.
With 16 second to go, a goal tend was called on Rico Alderson and John McCord’s basket was allowed, thus giving Jets a 93-92 lead. Rod Brown had the chance to win the game for Leopards, but was called for a travelling violation two seconds from the buzzer.
Chester’s James Hamilton led all scorers with 27 points.

2020 – Second period meltdown costly for Leopards

Leopards’ poor season continued as a terrible second period paved the way for an 88-75 home loss against Derby Trailblazers, on Saturday.
Thomas Baker’s side outscored the visitors by a point across the other three quarters but that will be little consolation for the Big Cats’ coach as they remaining joint bottom of Division One..
Orlan Jackman again led the hosts, finishing with a 26 point, 14 rebound double-double, sitting down for just 26 seconds. Point guard Prince Lartey returned to the side and also put a shift, adding five steals and three assists to his 13 points in 38 minutes. Elvisi Dusha and Os Gaizauskas finished with 11 points apiece, but both had difficult shooting nights, while Toby Gastaldi-Davis added eight points.
Johde Campble and Malcolm Smith led a balanced Derby offence with 17 points apiece with the latter adding six rebounds. Sergio Gomez added 16 points for the Blazers as they moved up to fourth in the table, with Trey Wifford finishing with ten points and seven boards.
Leopards started well with scores from Jackman and Dusha giving them the lead before Gomez got Derby off the mark with five straight points.
Three point plays from Gaizauskas and Dusha saw Leopards take a five point lead before five straight Lartey points gave the hosts their biggest lead of the game at 19-13, only for Jake Wesselingh to hit a trey before Smith beat the buzzer to cut the Big Cats’ lead to 19-18 at the first break. Blake Bowman drained a trey to put the Blazers back ahead before Jackman tied the score at 21 but that was as good as it got for the hosts four straight Bowman point sparked a 9-0 Derby run that gave them a lead they would never lose.
Jackman kept Leopards in touch by another 9-0 run stretched the lead out to 41-25 with three minutes of the first half remaining.
Gastaldi-Davis broke the run with a triple and also added a three point play, but Leopards never got the lead into single digits in the rest of the half as Smith’s late shot made it 52-39 in favour of the hosts heading into the locker room.
Gaizauskas drained a three with the opening score of the second half to make it a ten point game, only to see Blazers reply with a 12-1 run to make it 64-43 midway through the third period. A pair of Lartey triples and one from Dusha cut the lead to ten, but Gomez finished the period with a three-pointer to give his side a 72-60 lead at the final break.
Another Dusha triple made it a nine point game with seven minutes remaining but Derby replied with eight unanswered points and the hosts never got the deficit down to double-digits again before the referees decided to take centre stage with a rash of technical fouls in the final minute.