Leopards 91 (29,43,66)
Bristol Academy Flyers 90 (15,40,69)

Game Stats

An amazing end to Saturday’s EBL Division One game at Wodson Park saw Gareth Laws sink two free throws with under a second remaining to seal a win for Leopards.

After the Big Cats appeared to have thrown the game away, Laws was fouled with just 0.89 of a second left, and calmly sunk both foul shots to send the crowd home happy.

Leopards looked to have the game sewn up with two minutes remaining as they led 89-82, but three-pointers from Greg Streete and Arek Makowski both scored three pointers to cut the lead to one.

Bristol were forced to foul to stop the clock, but Carl Lathem-Henry missed both free-throws with 11 seconds left, and Ryan Williams scored a lay-up to give his team the lead with 3.2 seconds remaining.

Coach Jon Burnell called a Leopards time-out, and after Williams had deflected the first in-bound out, the ball reached Laws who drove to the basket and was fouled by Makowski.

He sunk both free-throws to give the Big Cats their seventh win in ten games.

Such a finish had looked unlikely as Leopards started strongly, with Sam Salter hitting 14 of his team-high 20 points in the opening quarter.

Salter’s first two points came from the foul line as Bristol coach Andreas Kapoulas managed to collect a technical after just 67 seconds., and treys from Laws and Salter helped the home side take a 22-10 lead after seven minutes.

A pair of Tyrone Treasure free-throws broke a 6-0 run, but seven straight Salter points sent Leopards into the fist break 29-15 ahead.

The second period proved to be the complete opposite of the first, and Flyers fought back and went on an 18-4 tear, with only a Lukas Volskis three and a single Laws free-throw breaking the run.

Leigh Greenan broke the run with a put-back but a trey from Williams and an Adam Simons basket gave Bristol their first lead of the night.

With the momentum appearing to have completely swung in Flyers’ favour, three Greenan points put Leopards back in the lead before Laws completed the first half scoring to send the home side into the locker room 43-40 ahead.

The third period saw Leopards remain in front, without ever managing to pull away. Errol Seaman scored his first points for the Big Cats on his return to the club to put them six points ahead going into the final two minutes of the quarter before five straight Williams points saw his side pull within one of the hosts and a Lee Treasure trey gave Bristol a 64-62 lead.

Further scores from Seaman and Matt Eames put Leopards ahead by two before the latter was harshly called for an intentional foul, and with Williams sinking both free-throws and Lee Treasure sinking another three, the visitors went into the final break with a 69-66 lead.

A Williams three-pointer helped Bristol take a five point lead early in the fourth period, five Fola Adeleke points and baskets from Volskis and Greenan saw Leopards regain the advantage.

A pair of Latham-Henry points leveled things up again with two and half minutes remaining.

Four Adeleke points helped launch Leopards on the run which appeared to wrapped the game up before Bristol’s late surge set the grandstand finish which saw Laws emerge as the hero.

Leopards: S Salter 20, G Laws 15, F Adeleke 15, C Latham-Henry 13, L Greenan 9, E Seaman 8, M Eames 6, L Volskis 5, M Collins, R Lloyd, B Warden (DNP), A Scotland-Williamson (DNP)