Leopards 86 Bristol Academy Flyers 92 – game abandoned

Leopards saw Sunday’s game against Bristol at the Brentwood Centre abandoned with 24 seconds remaining after a serious injury to point guard Carl Latham-Henry.

The 25-year-old collided with Flyers guard Greg Street and suffered a neck injury. With the player unable to be moved, and the ambulance taking 25 minutes to arrive, the game was called off after a 30 minute delay.

The final decision on whether the game will be replayed rests with England Basketball, but Leopards have offered to play the final 24 seconds when they visit Bristol for a Trophy game in January.

“We’re not looking to gain any advantage from the situation” said general manager Dave Ryan. “We were still in with a chance, albeit an outside one, of winning the game and even though we’ll be at a disadvantage having to play it Bristol it seems the fairest way of doing it.”

Flyers had looked to be heading for a comfortable win as they led 90-77 with 80 seconds remaining, but a pair of three pointers from Gareth Laws and one from Hrvoje Pervan took the score to 92-86 before the game came to a premature end.

Latham-Henry was taken to Romford hospital, and was released after treatment for damaged ligaments in his neck.

Pervan and Latham-Henry had led the scoring for the Big Cats with 26 points apiece, while Gareth Laws added 14.

In front of their biggest crowd of the season, the Leopards had produced a disappointing performance as the visitors controlled the game for long periods.

Latham-Henry opened the scoring with a trey and Pervan hit a long jump shot to give Leopards a 5-0 lead, but that was as good as it got at Bristol gave a hint of what was to follow with a 7-0 run.

Fola Adeleke broke the run, but with Leopards scoring only three of their six foul shots in the period, it took a Laws trey to cut the deficit to 25-18 going into the first break.

A low scoring second period saw Bristol lead by around ten points for much of the quarter, but a single free-throw from Pervan cut their lead to 38-30 in the final seconds of the half before Watson launched a last second buzzer-beater to send his side into locker room with a 41-30 advantage.

Despite a Pervan trey, Bristol’s lead grew to 50-35 at the midway stage of the third period, and although Lucas Volskis drained a three-pointer to get the deficit into single figures, Bristol again beat the buzzer with a trey as Tyronne Treasure scored from the Land of Plenty to send Flyers into the final break with a 64-53 lead.

Pervan opened the fourth period with a basket before five straight Latham-Henry points cut the visitors’ lead to 64-60.

A 6-2 Bristol run put Flyers back up by eight, and the game looked to be over as scores from John Grazioli and Treasure put the visitors 86-75 up with two minutes remaining.

However, back-to-back threes from Laws galvanised Leopards, and with Pervan also draining from long range, the Big Cats looked to be setting up a grandstand finish before the game was brought a premature end.

Leopards: C Latham-Henry 26, H Pervan 26, G Laws 14, R Jordan 6, L Volskis 5, F Adeleke 4, L Greenan 2, B Wilkinson 2.