12 November 2008
Big crowd expected at Brentwood
Leopards are expecting their biggest crowd of the season when they host
Bristol Academy Flyers at the Brentwood Centre on Sunday afternoon.
With a charity auction following the game, and 60 school children training with the Big Cats players before the game, general manager Dave Ryan is hoping for a large crowd at Brentwood:
“We think it could be our biggest home crowd since we reformed the club five years ago. We’re never going to beat the 5,000 who saw us win the National Cup at Birmingham, but it’ll be great to see Brentwood Centre full up again.
“We’ll be trying to raise as much money as possible for Richard House Children’s Hospice, but it also should be a good game against a side that matches up well with us. If it’s half as good as last week, we’re in for a treat!”
Bristol arrive at Brentwood with one win from their opening two EBL Division One games, and are still in with a chance of progressing in the National Trophy.
35 Hrvoje Pervan points helped the Big Cats defeat Flyers 96-81 when the sides met at Brentwood in the Trophy last month.
Leopards progressed to the National Cup quarter-final on Sunday with a thrilling 123-118 triple overtime victory against Westminster Warriors.
After trailing 70-58 at the start of the fourth period, Leopards fought back but were still down by three with two seconds remaining when young point guard Lukas Volskis launched a huge three-pointer to send the game into an extra period.
Volskis looked to have given Leopards the win with a late basket, but the impressive Jon Johnson levelled the score at 98 to force a second extra period.
Four straight Fola Adeleke points at the start of the second OT period appeared to have put Leopards in charge, but Warriors refused to lie down, and it took a late score from Pervan to force a third extra period.
Adeleke again scored the first four points of the period for a Leopards side who were without starters Carl Latham-Henry, Gareth Laws and Pervan due to foul trouble, and with Lee Greenan adding four points, the Big Cats finally wrapped up the victory.
Pervan led the Leopards scoring for the sixth time this season with 30 while Greenan had his best ever offensive night for the Big Cats with 22 points and Latham-Henry finished with 18 despite foul trouble.
The previous day had seen a strong third period performance pave the way for Leopards to continue their unbeaten start to the EBL Division One season with an 87-78 victory at Tees Valley Mohawks
The Big Cats upped their defensive intensity in the second half, and held the home side to 11 points in third period – adding 21 of their own – and once they took the lead with two minutes of third quarter remaining they never trailed again.
Pervan again led the Leopards’ scoring with 26 points while Latham-Henry
and Laws each added 15.
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