Essex & Herts Leopards 67 (10,25,44)
London United 85 (22,39,62)

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Game Stats.pdf

A poor performance from the Leopards saw them suffer a heavy defeat against EBL Division One pacesetters London United, on Sunday.

The two sides had met in the EBL Trophy at Brentwood on the opening day of the season, with the Big Cats running out winners by 14-points, but an appalling start to the game by the home team ruled out any repeat of that. Jon Burnell’s team repeatedly turned the ball over during the opening quarter, as the visitors took a 22-5 lead, and there was no way back after that poor start. Ironically, United managed to chalk up more turnovers than the hosts, but the final count of 22-20 made for a scrappy game of basketball in front of a large Brentwood crowd.

After two victories in succession, Leopards could have been expected to start well, but after Scoop Wicker (pictured) had levelled after Walid Mumuni’s early lay-up, the visitors took a stranglehold on the game with 13 unanswered points. Jacek Jagodka, one of three Poles in the United side did most of the damage hitting a pair of threes either side of two twos. Leopards’ only points until the dying seconds of the period were from the charity stripe, and with coach Burnell picking up a technical foul and Wicker collecting his second foul, Leopards trailed 22-7 until Haydon Herrin hit a three to narrow the deficit to 12 in the dying seconds of the first period.

Things did not improve in the second quarter, with United stretching their lead to 15, and Wicker collecting his third foul before back to back threes from Herrin and Rodney Alexander, plus a Herrin two saw the lead cut to 29-22 midway through the period. Point guard Steve Vear became the second United player to collect a technical foul, before immediately picking up his third foul, and with Laurent Irish draining one-from-two free-throws, Leopards narrowed the gap to 31-25 with 3:36 of the half remaining. That, however, proved to be as close as the home side would come, as United scored the final eight points to lead by 14 at the break.

United extended that run to 12-0 with the first four points of the second half, and although Wicker narrowed the gap with a trey, he returned to the bench after collecting his fourth foul. Scores from Roger Lloyd, Matt Eames and Alexander saw Leopards scored six unanswered points, but a technical of Alexander ended that run, and as the Big Cats continued to struggle offensively, United reached the final break with an 18 point lead.

There never appeared any chance of a comeback from the Big Cats, and the flow of the game was not helped by three foul calls on Lloyd in two minutes, as the forward fouled out. Despite treys from Herrin and Wicker, it was the refereeing which dominated much of the final period, with Herrin and Alexander being T’d, and United’s former London Leopard guard Pete Deppisch being called for an unsportsmanlike foul. Irish had the final word with a pair of dunks, but this will be a game the Big Cats will want to put behind them as they look to qualify for the play-offs.

Leopards: S Wicker 24, H Herrin 15, M Quashie 9, R Alexander 8, L Irish 5, M Eames 4, R Lloyd 2