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21April 2009
Play off dream ends

Leopards saw their season come to an end in the Play-off semi-finals on Saturday evening as a disjointed performance saw them lose to hosts Manchester Magic

Stefan Gil had a career night as Magic set up another final clash with Reading Rockets, though they went on to be hammered 89-52 in the title game. The English guard sunk eight three pointers on his way to a 35 point effort for Jeff Jones' side, and added six assists, six rebounds and as a many steals to lead his team to victory.

Leopards were led by 21 points from Carl Latham-Henry, with Hrvoje Pervan scoring 17, Russell Jordan 12 and Gareth Laws ten.

Magic opened strongly, with Boonham scoring the first points of the game, an although a trey from Laws followed by a Latham-Henry jump shot gave the Big Cats a brief lead, the first of Gill’s treys helped the Magic put together a 10-0 run to grab a lead they would never lose.

Magic sunk seven shots from the Land of Plenty during the first period, and despite Pervan scoring the final basket of the period, the home side went into the first break with a 30-22 lead.

Lee McCarthy opened the second period scoring with a pair from the foul line, , but it was five straight points from Pervan that saw the visitors pull to within two after three minutes of action.

Magic’s response was swift and deadly as a Kimbrough and-one launched a 9-0 Manchester run, and it was the American guard who wrapped up the first half scoring from the line after Leopards’ coach Jon Burnell had picked up a technical foul for shouting at his players during a timeout - sending the hosts into the locker room with a 49-39 half-time lead.

Gill continued to knock down the threes in the third period, sinking three from long range, and although the Big Cats narrowed the gap to four points following treys from Latham-Henry and Laws, the home side responded with ten unanswered points to go into the final break 66-54 ahead.

Leopards opened the scoring for the fourth straight quarter, through Laws, but they never looked capable of narrowing the gap.

The closest they came was when a pair of Latham-Henry free-throws made the score 71-61 with four minutes remaining, but four Kimbrough points in a 9-0 Magic run put them back in charge.

The lead grew to 20 in the final minute, but although Latham-Henry and Jordan scored the final points of the game it was Manchester who progressed to their third final of the campaign
 

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