On this day – March 16

2014 – Leopards up to second

Leopards moved up to second in the Division One table following a hard-fought 76-70 victory against Worthing Thunder on Sunday. The Brentwood Centre crowd were certainly kept on the edge of their seats as the visitors made a late run after the game appeared to be over midway through the fourth period

. The Big Cats had led by 15 with just under four minutes remaining before Thunder rattled off ten straight points to make it 71-66 with a minute left before the home side wrapped up the win from the foul line.

The hosts started slowly with only Howard Crawford troubling the scorers in the first two minutes as Thunder took a 6-2 lead. But an and-one from Carl Josey in a 9-0 run from hosts gave them a lead they would never lose as Andre Lockhart made it 14-9 with three period minutes remaining, and back-to-back Lawrence Brown baskets sent his side into the first break with a 24-14 lead.

With coach Youngblood running his bench, the visitors quickly extinguished that lead with an 11-2 run to make it a one point game, with only Ronnie Baker getting on the scoresheet for the home side. Kris Clark broke the run as the starters returned to the court, scoring either side of a Crawford basket, and the American pair scored Leopards’ final 13 points of the half to send them into the locker room with a 40-31 half-time lead

Shaun Durrant opened the second half scoring against his old side, and Leopards never looked troubled as Josey scored from the Land of Plenty to make it 53-39 with three third period minutes remaining. A Clark basket with a minute of the third period remaining saw the lead at 12 before Thunder imploded with Brendan Okoronkwo being called for an intentional foul on Josey, and both Okoronkwo and Bud Johnson picking up technical fouls windows downloaden op mac.

Josey remained cool at the foul line to sink all six free-throws to send Leopards into the final break 63-45 ahead Download free software.

Not for the first time this season, Leopards relaxed with the big lead and thunder opened the fourth period with nine straight points, including six from American Terrell Bell.

Crawford broke the run with three straight baskets including a pair of dunks before Ioan Nickson made it 71-56. With Thunder desperate for a win to keep their outside play-off hopes alive, they had one last run left in them as Dominic Baker hit six points in a 10-0 run. Clark broke the run before the Big Cats wrapped up their 16th league win of the campaign and sealed a place in the play-offs.

Clark led the way with 21 points, while Crawford added 20 points and seven rebounds. Josey was perfect in his nine visits to the foul line to finish with 17 points and six rebounds to win game sponsors Curves & Couture’s vote for Most Valuable Player.

Rory Spencer led Thunder with 20 points and 14 boards in 39 minutes, with Bell adding 12 and Tomas Seduikis ten.

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