U16s Conference

Leopards 69 (22, 33, 48)
South Essex All-Stars 73 (24, 40, 51)

Leopards hosted South Essex in their first league match of the season at Wodson Park.

In a high intensity first period Leopards tried to impose their game on the visitors and the pressure defence played dividends. Unfortunately in their desire to win the ball some players got into early foul trouble. This caused Coach Graves to have to shuffle his rotations earlier than planned. Leopards responded well and made some excellent decisions on offence and showed that the lessons learnt in the national cup had been valuable.
The second quarter saw the visitors increase their tempo and the Leopards were slow to adjust. Some excellent Leopards defence was interspersed with some at the other end of the continuum! This inconsistency and some interesting calls gave Essex the edge at the interval.

The half-time team talk had the desired effect as Leopards raised their considerable game and showed how effective they can be as a team when everyone is ‘switched on’ and plays tough defence. A little more luck and they could have been up by six at the break. More worrying was the Leopards impotency from the free throw line. They had worked the visitors into foul trouble and failed to punish from the line.

The final period was a 22 – 22 affair reflecting how close this match was throughout with two young teams trying to play good, intelligent basketball. Leopards turned the ball over eight times in four minutes and denied Essex scores on four consecutive trips up the court. Unfortunately Leopards did not convert many of the numerous chances their great ‘team defence’ had created and once more from the line failed to punish the opposition. As a result North Essex were able to hold out for a memorable victory.

Leopards coach Graves was ‘pleased with the effort, attitude and desire of the players to do the right thing’. Coach Darlow added that ‘we will continue to develop into a very good team’.

Coach Graves finished saying that ‘the frustrating part today is that we deserved more, and we will need to swallow this bitter pill and bounce back even stronger… this (season) is another learning journey where the players will have to adjust to different situations involving differing lengths of court time… every player made an impact today… the win just proved elusive!’

Leopards: Lewis Mabey 2, Nathan Crossman (Capt.) 12, Davis Nicholson 8, Joe Graves (V.Capt.), Tom Bryan, Neil Addison 30, Michael Darlow, George Keyes 2, David Evens, Roman Lososovskij 15,

Coaches: Terry Graves and Steve Darlow
‘Champagne Moments’: Team Defence (at times!) and Lewis Mabey round the back lay-up.

Bury Bulldogs 65 (19, 36, 42)
Leopards 57 (7, 27, 39)

The tough game the previous day was probably the key reason why the Leopards got off to such a poor start in their first ‘road trip’ of the season at Bury Bulldogs. The zip and intensity that almost won the match 24 hours previously was conspicuous by its absence. In fact the visitors did not move into second gear until well into the second quarter. The host could not believe their luck as they raced into 15 – 2 lead after eight minutes. Stung by the lack of energy shown Coach Graves tried to mix things up and a minor recovery emerged with a run of two baskets and slightly better defence.

The second period started slightly better and gradually Leopards found some reserves of energy and pride and began to play better team defence and this act as the launch platform for a more effective offence. All the players coming in made a positive contribution and they began to make the hosts rush their offence and foul on defence. This rally by the Leopards at least closed the gap at the interval as they won the quarter 20 -17.

After the interval another second half rally was needed and expected. To a certain extent it materialised as the obviously tired Leopards worked impressively for each other and they began to close the gap with some more intelligent offence and some more intense, ‘Leopards-like’ defence closing the gap to three points. Then just as the momentum was deservedly swinging Leopards way through dogged teamwork, Leopards inexplicably let Bury back into the game with some inconsistent defence again – frustration to say the least for all Leopards supporters.

The final period needed something special from this Leopards team and in terms of effort and attitude Coach Graves got it. As a team they gave their all and won the period 17 – 14 but it was too little, too late. They were left just short and bitterly disappointed, knowing that the slow, almost comatose start had cost them the match.

Once again this Leopards team had shown some good basketball, excellent desire and teamwork but the start and inconsistency had cost them the match.

‘We will continue work hard, improve and work for each other and this team will succeed … they have the desire and the positive attitude to achieve things.’ (Coach Graves)

Leopards: Lewis Mabey, Nathan Crossman (Capt.) 3, Davis Nicholson7, Joe Graves, Tom Bryan 3, Neil Addison 14, Michael Darlow 4, George Keyes, David Evens, Roman Lososovskij 21,

Coach: Terry Graves
‘Champagne Moment’: Tom Bryan’s ‘cool’ three pointer

Next match: Saturday, November 22nd vs. College of West Anglia Fury (H) Midlands Conference League

Stats