The Big Cats erased a 20-point deficit with a strong end to the third period and a good start to the fourth, but they ultimately came up short down the stretch.
In front of a big crowd, captain Sam Newman led the home side with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists, while Chuck Duru added 15 points on his competitive debut.
Luke Mascall-Wright continued his good early-season form with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists, with Lee Hodges adding 11 rebounds to his 12 points.

Duru became the first Leopards to score at their new venue when he split a pair of free-throws, but the Big Cats struggled to get points on the board in the opening minutes and despite treys from Newman, Andre Lavinier and Duru, they went into the first break trailing 19-16.
The second period proved to be the killer for the home side as Barking went on an 8-0 run outscoring them by ten points, and a pair of Newman free-throws could only reduce the arrears to 45-31 going into the locker room at half-time.

Newman scored from the Land of Plenty to open the fourth period and four Mascall-Wright points in an 8-0 run from the hosts saw them cut the visitors’ lead to 63-62 lead with seven minutes of the game remaining.
Adebayo and Duru exchanged treys but the young English guard did all of the damage down the stretch as he scored 21 straight points for Abbey to seal their win.