City of Sheffield Arrows 92 (28, 50, 76,
Essex & Herts Leopards 81 (26, 46, 58,

A big improvement of last week’s hammering against Arrows was not enough to give Leopards their first league victory of the season, on Saturday. American duo Hayden Herrin and Scoop Wicker again led the Big Cats scoring with 21 and 20 points respectively, but with new signing Rodney Alexander hitting 16 and forward Mark Quashie adding 12, the Big Cats offence have a much more balanced look to it than in recent weeks.

The negative side for coach Jon Burnell was the fourth period ejection of young forward Tom Christie (pictured) after a mid-court altercation with Arrows’ Jamie Davidson, an incident which also saw two of the Sheffield bench, including starter Ryan Patton. Christie now faces a one-game ban and a fine from he game’s governing body.

An entertaining first half saw Matt Eames open the scoring for the visitors, and with all of the starting five except getting on the scoresheet, the Big Cats were tied at 15 midway through the period. Alexander joined the action with 4:37 on the clock, and within 40 seconds he had opened his scoring account. However it was Herrin who stole the first period show, finishing with 12 points, including a half-court buzzer-beater, which narrowed a five point Arrows lead to 28-26 at the first break.

Scores from Roger Lloyd and Wicker saw Leopards regain the lead two minutes into the second period, before a succession of threes from the hosts saw them open a five point gap again. Herrin and Alexander replied with shots from outside of arc as the lead continued to change regularly. A 7-2 run from Sheffield saw them open their biggest lead of the night, 50-44, but a jump-shot from Wicker with seven seconds remaining sent Leopards into half-time trailing by four.

The third period has proved to be Leopards Achilles heal this season, and they again started poorly after half-time, with a Mike Paine three helping Sheffield extend their lead to seven. Things got worse for the Big Cats when Roger Lloyd picked up two quick Technical Fouls for dissent, and while the first one was deserved, the second seemed harsh. Patton sunk the four resulting free-throws to give his side a double-digit lead, and the home side had extended theat to 17 points with three minutes of the period remaining as Leopards’ offence dried up. Late scores from Qusheie and Herrin were not enough to prevent the Arrows lead extending to 76-58 at the final break.

Quashie scored the first six points of the fourth period, but there was little sign of a comeback before the quadruple ejection, which was sparked by Davidson pushing Chritie for no apparent reason. With Davidson adjudged to have started the altercation, Herrin drained both free-throws following the restart, and Wicker scored from the in-bound to narrow the home side’s lead to nine. However a trey from former Sheffield Shark Todd Cauthorn effectively ended that run, and although Leopards finished strongly with five straight points from Alexander, they were unable to prevent Arrows from retaining their spot at the top of the table.

Leopards: H Herrin 21, S Wicker 19, R Alexander 16, M Quashie 12, R Lloyd 8, M Eames 4, T Christie 2, C Mark, J Burnell (DNP)