Leopards’ season ended in disappointment as they exited the Division One play-offs with a 107-85 loss at Worthing Thunder.
With a depleted side missing American forward Asante Sandiford who couldn’t be arsed to play Andre Lavinier, and with coach Thomas Baker forced to kit up so they had the minimum eight players, the Big Cats found the high-scoring Thunder side too hot to handle.
In the absence of Sandiford, Rory Winter stepped up to finish with a season-high 27 points and three rebounds. Sam Newman went agonisingly close to a triple double, draining five treys on the way to 19 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Lee Hodges had nine rebounds to go with his 17 points, Findlay Wood finished with 13 points and six assists, while Chuck Duru completed the scoring with nine points.
But the Big Cats had no answer to veteran American duo Zaire Taylor and Alex Owumni. Taylor finished with 34 points, ten rebounds and seven assists, while Owumni had 23 points and seven boards.
Hodges opened the visitors’ scoring before a Wood trey gave Leopards the lead with his first three-pointer, and Hodges dunked to for their final lead of the gam.
But the hosts replied with an 11-2 run capped by a fast-break by former Leopard Ish Fontaine and the British guard sent his side into the first break with a 33-19 lead.
Triples from Wood and Newman saw the Big Cats cut the deficit to eight midway through the second period, but that was as close as they came as Thunder went into the locker room with a 58-45 lead gta vice city pc download kostenlos deutsch vollversion.
Winter and Newman kept Leopards in touch during the first three minutes of the second half, but Thunder took control after that and Taylor closed out a 23-10 run to send his side into the final break with a commanding 87-62 lead.
Hodges, who was double-teamed all night in the absence of Sandiford, carved open the home defence three time in the early minutes of the fourth period, and Duru hit a triple to cut the lead to 19.
But despite eight points from Winter and a couple of decent jump shots from Wood, that was as good as it got as Leopards’ season came to a close.

A pair of Olabiyi Odumosu free-throws cut the home side’s lead to one with two first period minutes remaining, but Durant sparked 9-1 run with Lawrence Brown and Courtney Van Beest also getting on the scoresheet as the hosts ended the first period  with a 25-16 lead.

With Youngblood running his bench for much of the second period, the lead grew to 12 as George Naiwo drained a trey to open the second period. Former Big Cat Tom Martin drained a trey to make it a nine point game, but a Clark trey saw Leopards lead back up to 13 and Marvin Isobar sent the Leopards go into the locker room with a 42-33 advantage.

Crawford and Jonathan Johnson exchanged baskets as both started the second half slowly, but successful trips to the foul line by Crawford and Clark saw Leopards’ lead grow to 52-39 with 5:30 on the clock. Carl Josey kept the lead in double figures, and Leopards extend that lead to 60-47 at the final break as Naiwo and Brown helped them finish strongly

Leopards’ strength in depth proved crucial in the last ten minutes as the visitors were outscored 23-12. A Ronnie Baker foul on Laken Popoola saw the former Guildford Heat guard hit all three free-throws to open the fourth period  but that was as good as it got for the visitors as Van Beest replied at the other end.

Josey drained from the Land of Plenty to keep the home side comfortably in front, and baskets from Crawford and Durant made it a 16 point game heading into the final three minutes to effectively seal the win. The bench players returned to action at that stage, with Naiwo and Brown both scoring off Ioan Nickson assists before the Welsh international also scored to make it a 22 points game and Isobar drained a trey to wrap things up.

Crawford led Leopards with 15 points and seven rebounds, with Clark and Brown adding 14 points apiece. Josey [left] had eight boards to go with his 11 points, while Durant pulled down a massive 15 rebounds along with his eight points.

Justin Hitchman led Warriors with a 16 point, 11 rebound double-double, with acting coach Johnson adding 15 points and seven boards.  Rebounding proved to crucial as the Big Cats’ dominated 60-35 on the glass.

2002 – Play-off woe for Leopards

Newcastle Eagles 94 (20,51,73)
Shawn Myers 26, TJ Walker 25, Malcolm Leak 21
DG London Leopards Kool Kats 88 (18,42,70)
Rod Brown 24, Rico Alderson 19, Martin Henlan 14
BBL Championship, Round One @ Skydome Arena, Coventry
Newcastle Eagles progressed through to the quarter-finals of the BBL Championship with a 94-88 over DG London Leopards Kool Kats in Round One.
Leopards enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and led 38-31 four minutes from the interval. But TJ walker hit eight as Newcastle finished the half strongly with a 20-4 tear to lead 51-42. Newcastle’s advantage peaked at 67-54, before Leopards rallied and leveled the game at 76 early in the final period.
Eagles made the decisive run in the dying minutes when back-to-back Jeremy Hyatt scores sparked an 10-3 burst to leave the Eagles 91-83 clear with just 53s left. Eagles reward for victory is a quarter-final match-up with the BBL Southern Conference runners-up Brighton Bears tomorrow (6.00).
Shawn Myers led all scorers with 26, whilst TJ Walker chipped in 25 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Rod Brown led the Leopards with 24 points including 5-for-8 three point shooting.