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2 April 2009
Leopards fail to spoil Rockets party

Tiredness eventually caught up with the Big Cats as a strong fourth period allowed Reading to complete an unbeaten regular season on Sunday evening.

With the majority of the Leopards team having got to bed at 4am following the trip to Manchester, the visitors ran out of steam in the final quarter as Rockets made it 32 wins on the bounce.

Carl Latham-Henry led the visitors with 25 point, while Russell Jordan had his most productive night in a Leopards vest with 23 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. Hrvoje Pervan completed the leading scorers for the seven-man visiting side with 11 points and six rebounds.

The home side started strongly with treys from Lohfink and McKay before Jordan and Latham-Henry kept the Big Cats in touch. Baskets from Ronnie Baker and Pervan twice levelled the score, and although Jordan converted another put-bacl, it was the Rockets who scored the final three points of the period to go into the first break with a 31-22 lead.

 Jordan continued his good form with the first basket of the second period, and with Latham-Henry draining a pair of free-throws, the deficit was cut to five – only to see Lohfink left open to sink a trey.

Five straight Baker points saw Leopards narrow the gap to 37-33 with four second period minutes gone, and it was Latham-Henry who levelled the score at 42 with two first half minutes remaining as he sunk three straight free-throws.

Terrell Smith restored the home side’s lead, but three points from both Jordan and Latham-Henry sent the Leopards into the locker room with a 49-48 lead.

 After the interval, Smith again put Reading ahead with a trey, but four Pervan points followed by a Gareth Laws trey put Leopards in the lead at 56-51 with two second half minutes gone.

 Rockets replied with seven straight points to regain the lead, and the sides exchanged baskets for the rest of the rest of the period, with eight Latham-Henry points helping the visitors lead 74-72 at the final break.

 That proved to be as good as it got for the visitors as tiredness clearly showed for a Leopards team who had travelled 600 miles over the weekend. Smith and Watts drained treys in a 13-2 run to open the fourth period, with Jordan being the only Leopards to trouble the scorers.

Latham-Henry broke the run with a pair of free-throws, but despite scores from Lee McCarthy and Jordan, the visitors never managed to get the deficit down to single figures again as they finished their league season with a 12-6 record.

Leopards: C Latham-Henry 25, R Jordan 23, H Pervan 11, G Laws 9, L McCarthy 8, R Baker 7, L Greenan 4, J Burnell (DNP)

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