Bristol Academy Flyers 74 (18,43,55)
Leopards 81 (20,41,57)

Carl Latham-Henry led the way with 24 points as Leopards return from much-fancied Bristol with their fourth consecutive victory, on Saturday. With Sam Salter and Stix Bright chipping in with 14 points, the Big Cats produced a strong finish to the game to remain joint top of the EBL Division One.

In a tight game throughout, it the was the hosts who opened the scoring through 7ft American Adam Simons, but three point plays from Bright and Gareth Laws put Leopards into a lead they never lost in the first period. Nine straight Latham-Henry points saw Leopards lead 16-11 with two minutes of the quarter remaining before a 7-2 Bristol run leveled the score, only for Fola Adeleke to score a lay-up and send the Big Cats into the first break with a 20-18 lead.

A single Simons’ free-throw saw Bristol halve the Leopards’ lead in the opening minute of the second period before scores from Matt Eames, Bright and Adeleke saw the visitors open a 26-19 lead. Any thoughts that Leopards would run away with the game were swiftly ended as Bristol replied with a 14-2 run included nine points from Tony Watson and a three-point play Gareth Till play to put the home side 33-28 ahead. Laws broke the run with a jump shot, with Salter then leveling the score with a trey, and tight end to the first half saw Leopards go into the locker room trailing 43-41.

The third period proved to be a defensive slog, with only teams only scoring 28 points between them, and despite Latham-Henry scoring six straight points for the visitors, Bristol remained in the lead for the first five minutes of the quarter. Lee McCarthy tied the score with 4:27 remaining in the period, and after a pair of Gregg Streete free-throws had put the hosts back in the lead, Bright again leveled things before scores from Adeleke and Latham-Henry sent Leopards into the final break with a two point lead.

Five points from captain Salter kept Leopards two points ahead after three and a half minutes fourth period action. Scores from Laws, Eames and Salter maintained that lead before back-to-back McCarthy score put them 74-70 ahead going into the final two minutes.

A Salter turnover wasted a chance for Leopards to go six ahead, but some good defence kept the home side down to two points in the last two minutes, and four Salter free-throws together with a Latham-Henry basket iced the win against a side expected to challenge for a top four spot this season.

Leopards: C Latham-Henry 24, A Bright 14, S Salter 14, L McCarthy 8, G Laws 7, F Adeleke 6, M Eames 4, L Greenan 4, L Volskis.