After three straight wins with their new-look line-up, Leopards were brought back to earth on Saturday as they went down 85-71 at Leicester Warriors.

To complete a miserable day for the Big Cats, they had former GB guard Perry Lawson ejected for throwing the ball at Warriors’ Carl Pearson

The Big Cats had no answer to American Rodney Sanders who finished with 30 points,

The visitors never recovered from a disappointing start as they trailed 15-6 after six minutes – Darrell Bethune having scored four of those points against his old team – and they went into the first break trailing 24-13 .

That deficit grew to as many as 18 early in the second period before  Mike Martin sparked a comeback to reduce the margin to 40-32 before Warriors finished the half strongly to lead 48-37 at half-time .

The visitors failed to trouble the scorers in the first six minutes of the second half as Warriors effectively wrapped the game up at 56-37 before AJ Roberts broke the drought, but Leopards trailed 62-45 at the final break and never looked likely to stage a comeback in the fourth period .

Martin led the way for the visitors with another massive double-double, finishing with 16 points and as many rebounds, while Roberts finished with 16 points, six assists and seven assists . Dougie Bennett came off the bench to hit four of his seven three point attempts on the way to a 15-point game, with Bethune adding 11 points.

“We lacked intensity” admitted coach Ogunjimi . “We had it in spurts, but you can’t let a team like Leicester start well, and not following the game-plan we worked on in practice really hurt us.”

2001 – Leopards bounce back

DG London Leopards Kool Kats 108 (19,43,73)
Rod Brown 28, Jason Kimbrough 26, Maurice Robinson 17
Thames Valley Tigers 97 (20,48,67)
Kelvin Robinson 18, Eric Burks 18, Barry Bowman 17
BBL Trophy, group A @ Brentwood Leisure Centre
DG London Leopards Kool Kats got back into winning ways on Monday night, with a 108-97 success over Thames Valley Tigers.
A third quarter 9-1 charge from the Leopards was the key to their success – they outscored the Tigers 30-19 during the quarter to turn a 48-43 half-time deficit into a 73-67 lead heading into the fourth quarter. They then added a 22-7 final quarter tear to make the result certain.
Leopards’ Rico Alderson came on for the last 30 seconds of the game, despite a dislocated finger. However, it was team-mate Rod Brown who led all scorers with 28 points.
The win lifts the Leopards into third in pool A of the BBL Trophy, with the top four qualifying for the quarter-finals of the competition.

2011 – Leopards crash to Crusaders

Medway Park Crusaders 93 (15,35,59) Leopards 83 (20,39,60)

LEOPARDS’ poor away league form continued as they crashed to a 93-83 defeat at Medway Park Crusaders, on Saturday. With forward Ousman Krubally missing, the Big Cats struggled against the size of the Kent side, but really should have close out the game after leading by as many as ten in the first half.

Leopards controlled the first half, leading 20-15 after the opening period and were up by ten going into the final two minutes of the second quarter before Crusaders rattled off a 7-0 run to cut the margin to 39-35 at half-time.

With former BBL guard Steve Vear controlling the play on his return to Crusaders, the home side started the second half strongly and took their first lead of the game at 41-39.

Despite struggling to stop Canadian big man Joe Schow in the paint, Leopards stayed in touch, and David Buchberger capped a 7-2 run by draining a pair of free-throws after being fouled on the buzzer to send the visitors into the final break with a 60-59 lead.

The teams were level midway through the final period, but Leopards’ offence dried up down the stretch as they slipped to their fourth straight away league loss.

Vernon Teel led the scoring for the Big Cats with 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists with Buchberger adding 19 points, four boards and three assists. Lister chipped in with four three pointers on the way to 14 points and three blocks while acting captain Lukas Volskis added nine points.

Coach Dejan Mihevc was naturally disappointed with the loss: “I would like to congratulate to Medway Park’s players for a deserved win. They showed more desire and were more focused specially in the last part of the game.

“Their new point guard [Steve] Vear was really a true leader on the floor and he showed that he is exactly what they needed. We started the game well and even if we were struggling under the basket we were controlling the game.

“Unfortunately in the second half we didn’t play smart and strong enough as a team and Medway took their chance to get a deserved win. Now we must look forward and get ready for our next, this season only second home game where hopefully we will be in full squad.”

Leopards: V Teel (22), D Buchberger (19), J Lister (14), L Volskis (9), J Lockwood (6), B Wilkinson (4), Z Wells (4), D Norton (3), S Bublys (DNP), R Alexis (DN), M Adomaitis (DNP).