2000 – Leopards end losing run
adidas London Leopards 103 (31,54,76)
Brantley 25, Johnson/Mensah-Bonsu 24
Newcastle Eagles 93 (27,46,70)
Blalock 30, Baker 18, Smith 14
Dairylea Dunkers Championship @ Brentwood Leisure Centre
The adidas London Leopards closed the gap on DRIVER Brighton Bears with a 103-93 victory over the Newcastle Eagles in this cross conference game in the Dairylea Dunkers Championship.
Leopards led after the first quarter and built on that with a 14-6 run in the second quarter, as well as two 8-2 tears in the third and fourth quarters. Brandon Brantley top scored for the home side with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
However, the game’s top scorer was Eagles’ Ralph Blalock, who scored 30 points.
2005 – Leopards campaign comes to an end
City of Sheffield Arrows 103 (22,52,75)
Essex & Herts Leopards 71 (9,30,44)
Leopards’ season came to a disappointing, though hardly unexpected, end with a heavy defeat at Sheffield in the play-off quarter-finals. The home side had swept all before them throughout the season, and Jon Burnell’s team never looked capable of springing a major surprise.
The Big Cats were not helped by some inconsistent refereeing decision, with Mark Quashie being ejected for dissent midway through the third period – but by the game was effectively over anyway. However the Big Cats did not help their own cause with some abysmal foul shooting, scoring just nine from 25 shots.
Laurent Irish led the visitors’ scoring with 17 points, while Troy Selvey (pictured) added 14. Steve Ogunjimi, who had led the Leopards’ scoring for four consecutive games saw his points tally drop off, but he went close to a triple double with nine points, ten rebounds and eight assists.
Quashie opened the scoring, and doubled his tally with a second basket to put Leopards 4-2 up. However that proved to be as good as it got for the Big Cats. By the time Leopards next got on the scoresheet, with a Selvey lay-up, the home side added 16 straight points to take a lead they were never to relinquish. Although they produced a good defensive performance to prevent Sheffield’s outstanding American point-guard Ryan Patten to just 12 points, they were unable to stop the rest of the Arrows’ offence, as they reached the first break with a 13 points lead and took that advantage to 22 at half-time.
The third period saw Leopards open aggressively, and they finally recieved some foul calls as they attacked the basket, but it did not stop Irish picking up the game’s first technical foul for complaining after being clattered while going to the basket, as Leopards reached the final break down by 31. With Quashie’s ejection after an altercation with Adrian Anderson, and later technical fouls called on Roger Lloyd and Selvey saw the lead grow to 40 in the final period.
However, the visitors refused to lie down, and Ben Stacey became the ninth and final member of the Big Cats roster to get on the scoresheet. They did manage to make inroads into the the lead, but it was too little too late as the Leopards saw their campaign to an end.
Leopards: L Irish 17, T Selvey 14, R Alexander 11, S Ogunjimi 9, B Moore 7, M Quashie 6, R Lloyd 4, B Stacey 2, M Eames 1
2003
Leopards' history 