Essex & Herts Leopards 85 (20,48,61)
Manchester Magic 81 (22,43,62)

Leopards statistics.pdf

Game Photos from www.tgsphotos.co.uk

Leopards snapped a three game losing streak as third placed Manchester Magic were narrowly beaten at Wodson Park, on Saturday.

Brian Moore (pictured) and Troy Selvey led the Big Cats’ scoring with 18 apiece. All of Moore’s points came from three-pointers as fought off the effects of ‘flu, while Selvey shrugged off a knee injury which had left him doubtful for the game to again dominate inside the paint. In an entertaining and close game, the home side led for long periods, only to see Magic hit back at the end of the first and third periods.

After Ben Eaves had given the visitors the lead with the first lead of the game, Selvey replied with four points, and although Magic took a time-out just two minutes into the game, Moore’s first score from outside the arc extended Leopards’ lead to 9-4. The visitors gradually worked their way back into the game, an although Mark Quashie – who started on the bench after his ejection the previous week – scored back-to-back baskets and Brandon Kephart took his personal tally to six, Magic led by two at the first break.

Kephart leveled the score with the first play of the second period, and although Stefan Gill restored Magic’s lead, Moore’s second effort from the Great Beyond gave Leopards a lead they were to hold for 16 minutes. As Leopards continued to defend well successive steals and lay-ups from Kephart took the lead to five, before Moore stole the ball and drained another long range effort from the Lane of Plenty. Laurent Irish joined the trey-fest before Moore dropped his fourth trey of the evening, and the same two players repeated the trick to drain threes and send Leopards into the locker room with a 48-43 lead.

Leopards have struggled in the third period this season, and those woes continued, though they produced a considerably better performance than against Reading the previous week. Moore drained his sixth three-pointer of the night to maintain Leopards’ advantage, but only Rodney Alexander managed four points as Magic had six different scorers in their most impressive spell of the game to take a one-point lead into the final break.

The fourth period saw a better performance from the home side, and six straight points from Selvey saw Leopards take the lead for the final time at 67-66 with 7:30 on the clock. A Roger Lloyd dunk off Ogunjimi’s assist, and a put back from Selvey gave Leopards a five-point lead before back-to-back threes from Ogunjimi extended the lead to eight with 4:13 remaining.
A pair of successful free-throws from Kephart kept the margin at eight as the game entered the final two minutes, however the visitors, led by Andrew Lovedale’s 21 points, hit back and successful trips to the charity stripe from Ben Eaves and Lovedale reduced the home side’s lead to two with 37seconds left.

With the Big Cats facing a second fight-back in as many weeks Kephart steadied their nerves with a pair of free-throws, and Selvey’s sixth block of the night sealed the win and lifted Jon Burnell's team back into the play-off zone.

Leopards: T Selvey 18, B Moore 18, B Kephart 16, S Ogunjimi 12, L Irish 8, R Lloyd 5, M Quashie 4, R Alexander 4, M Eames (DNP), F Empson (DNP)

Juniors
Disappointment for both the U18 & U16 Boys losing earlier in the day to TASIS (83-96) and London Towers (50-71) respectively. The U16 girls returned to form though with a comprehensive 77-41 win over Towers - see Report