Reading Rockets 89 (19,38,56)
Essex & Herts Leopards 62 (16,27,37)

Leopards showed the downside of their Jekyll and Hyde character as they suffered a heavy EBL Trophy defeat at Reading Rockets, on Saturday.

The Big Cats were a little unlucky to be trailing by 11 at half-time, but a poor second half performance saw them heavily beaten by the Berkshire side for the second time this season. Four of the visiting players scored in double figures, but with Laurent Irish (pictured) leading the way on 13, Jon Burnell’s team never had enough fire-power against a side who are arguably favourites to win the league this season.

Steve Ogunjimi scored four of the first six points for Leopards and provided an assist for Troy Selvey, but the shooting guard was forced to sit out the final six minutes of the period after picking up two harsh offensive fouls. A jump-shot from Irish gave Leopards 10-4 lead, but with the visitors struggling to control 6’ 11” Paul Tonkovich in the paint, Rockets hit back with nine unanswered points to take a 13-10 lead. Back-to-back three-pointers from Sam Salter saw Leopards’ lead restored , before scores from Tomas Kersis and Tonkovich saw the hosts regain the advantage to lead by three at the first break.

With Roger Lloyd missing a pair of free-throws, the Big Cats started the second period slowly with only Errol Seaman, who had picked up six first period rebounds, the only Leopard on the scoreboard as Rockets opened with a 9-4 run. Scores from Lloyd and Irish finally got the visitors going, but although Ogunjimi took the margin back into single, back-to-back scores from Kersis sent Leopards into the locker room trailing 38-27.

Although Seaman continued to impress at both ends of the floor, a low scoring third period proved to be the end of Leopards’ hopes as they 18-10, with only three points scored in the first five minutes, to trail by 19 at the final break.

With Leopards already needing a miracle to qualify for the semi-finals, the fourth period proved to be little more than garbage time. Ogunjimi and Irish each scoring six and Seaman increasing his personal tally by four to 12, and collected three more boards to finish with 13 – but coach Burnell will know that his side need to considerably improve if his aims of a top four finish are to be achieved.

Leopards: L Irish (13), S Ogunjimi (12), E Seaman (12), S Salter (12), S Buck (4), T Selvey (4), R Lloyd (3), M Eames (2), D Jones, E Gregory (DNP).