2020 – Leopards beaten by Riders
Leopards failed to build on a good start on Saturday as they went down 79-53 against Loughborough Riders at Oaklands.
Four straight Prince Lartey points had given the Big Cats a 13-12 lead after six minutes but the visitors rattled off 12 straight points to take control and they never trailed again.
The home side trailed 23-14 at the first break and despite treys from James Cummings and Ray Akpofure they went into the locker room trailing 40-25 as Riders scored the final seven points of the half.
Another triple from Cummings followed by one from captain Chuck Duru made it a ten point game with six third period minutes gone, but for Leicester player Harrison Gamble answered from downtown to launch a 9-1 run from the visitors and they went into the final break with a 59-39 lead.
Jerelle Okoro opened the fourth period scoring but Jonas Dieterich hit a trey and the lead never dipped below 20 again as Riders closed out the win.
Cummings led the Leopards’ scoring for the first time with 12 points, but Lartey was the only other Big Cat in double figures with 11 points and six rebounds. Duru and Okoro each added nine points with the latter adding six boards in a game where the home side were out-rebounded 64-41.
A balanced Riders offence was led by 16 points and five rebounds from Gamble, with Dieterich adding ten points and five board while Jordan Santiago also had ten points.
2015 – Trophy woe for Big Cats
Leopards 50 Warriors 72
A terrible first half performance saw Leopards exit the National Trophy with a heavy home defeat against Leicester Warriors at the Brentwood Centre on Sunday. Against a team they had beaten by double digits the previous day, the Big Cats produced a turgid first 20 minutes, scoring a club record low of just 15 points, and they never looked capable of erasing a 27-point half-time deficit.
Matic Zupanc led Leopards with 11 points, with Dave Ajumobi adding ten points as their chance of repeating the 2013 success in the competition ended
It took almost five minutes for the home side to get on the scoreboard with a Zupanc trey, but which time they trailed 9-0, and it took another two minutes for Will Ashby to double their tally to cut the Warriors lead to 14-6.
Even that didn’t spark a comeback and the home side went into the first break 23-10 down before allowing Warriors to open the second period on a 5-0 to make it an 18-point game. Five points from Ajumobi looked to have given Leopards some momentum as they trailed 30-15 with 7:58 on the clock, but incredibly that was the last time the home side troubled the scorers in the half, and Warriors rattled off 12 straight points to lead 42-15 going into the locker room.
It had to get better, and it did as Ajumobi opened the second half with a three point play, but Leopards never got the margin below 20 in the third period and it took a Courtney Van Beest score to cut the margin to 59-34 at the final break
Byron Richard drained a triple to open the fourth quarter but the closest Leopards came was when a Zupanc triple made it a 19-point game with eight minutes remaining as the Big Cast meekly bowed out of the competition.