London United 65 (15,15,43)
Essex & Herts Leopards 68 (10,33,42)

Leopards chalked up their fourth straight away victory, as title contenders London United were beaten at Brunel University, on Saturday. Troy Selvey led the way with 20 points for the Big Cats as they edged a tight encounter to record their second victory against their local rivals this season.

With Demetrice Williams still struggling with an ankle injury, coach Jon Burnell kept faith with the same starting five which had comprehensively beaten Solent Stars the previous week.However they started sluggishly, and scores from Ryan Cadogan and Damian Reid gave the hosts a 4-0 lead.

The drought was broken after nearly four minutes when former Leopard Mark Quashie fouled Sam Salter in the act of shooting a three-pointer, and he drained all three free-throws to get Leopards off the mark. Selvey gave Leopards their only lead of the period with a lay-up, but he proved to be the only visiting player to score from the floor in a first period which saw a dismal shooting display as the Big Cats scored just two of their 19 attempts.

Back-to-back baskets for Pete Deppisch, who spent two seasons with the old Leopards, took the lead out to five, and despite free-throws from Matt Eames and Errol Seaman, a trey from Reid gave United a 15-8 lead before Selvey scored on the buzzer to reduce the deficit at the first break.

United opened the second period with a barrage of three-pointers as Deppisch, Pawel Machynia and Walid Mumuni all scored, but baskets from Selvey and Williams kept Leopards in touch before Steve Ogunjimi scored five straight points to narrow the hosts’ lead to five. Seaman took the deficit down to two before back-to-back baskets from Selvey saw Leopards regain the lead at 28-26.

Deppisch and Dave Jones exchanged threes, before Selvey scored in the dying seconds to send Leopards into the locker room with a 33-30 lead.

Salter opened the second half scoring with a long two-pointer, but the key point came two minutes later when United centre Damien Reid picked up his fourth foul before hurling the ball into the rafters to collect a technical foul and leave the game. The Big Cats should have taken better advantage of the Canadian’s absence, but although Selvey scored the next four Leopards points after Salter had sunk both technical free-trhows, they never made their superior size count, and nine unanswered points saw United regain the lead before Ogunjimi scored a single free-throw to send Leopards into the final break trailing by one.

The teams exchanged baskets during the early stages of the fourth period, with Seaman doubling his personal tally to eight with a pair of put-backs. Brian Moore’s foul on Deppisch proved costly as he sunk all three shorts from the charity stripe, and back-to-back baskets from Quashie saw United take a 56-52 lead with four minutes remaining. However a pair of treys from Salter and two Seaman scores saw Leopards go 62-60 up as United called a time-out with 2:37 on the clock.

The move worked as Machynia drained another three, but a 90 second scoring drought, a steal and basket from Williams gave Leopards one point lead with 57 seconds remaining. Another United time-out followed, and Cadogan gave them the lead for what proved to be the last time – with Williams again replying. Home point guard Santa Ataha was called for his third offensive foul of the evening with 6.2 seconds remaining to effectively extinguish United’s hopes, and Williams wrapped up the victory from the foul-line.

Leopards: T Selvey 20, S Salter 15, E Seaman 12, D Williams 11, S Ogunjimi 6, D Jones 3, M Eames 1, B Moore, R Lloyd, J Warwick, E Gregory (DNP).