Essex & Herts Leopards 77 (16,38,55)
Solent Stars 74 (11,28,58)

Leopards statistics.pdf

Game Photos from www.tgsphotos.co.uk

Leopards took a firm grip on eighth place in the EBL Division One as they defeated their nearest rivals in the race for a play-off spot.

Recent signing Troy Selvey again led the Big Cats with 25 points, six blocks, nine rebounds and a pair of steals. Only Selvey’s free-throw shooting let him down, but his five-from-fifteen at the foul line was forgotten as he grabbed the steal with three seconds to go which clinched Leopards’ sixth league victory of the season. Selvey’s fellow American, Brandon Kephart, also impressed for the home side hitting six three-pointers in his 23 points.

However it was at the defensive end where Leopards impressed, limiting Marlin Capers, the league’s second highest scorer to just 12 points - 14 below his season’s average.

The Big Cats opened strongly, Laurent Irish and Kephart both draining threes as they scored the first eight points. Phil Long reduced Solent’s deficit to three with a minute of the opening quarter remaining, but that was as close as the visitors came during the first half. Kephart drained three straight treys during a two minutes period during the second quarter, and a Matt Eames put-back saw the home side open a 36-21 lead with 2:30 of the half remaining. However five points from the impressive Larry Parker helped cut Leopards’ lead to 10 at the break before what seems to be the inevitable third period collapse for Jon Burnell’s team.

Parker hit the opening seven second half Solent points, as the visitors put together a 12-4 run to open the period, and a Mark Jackson three gave Solent their first lead with 4:27 of the period remaining. Only Selvey was able to score with any regularity for the home side, hitting ten in the period, and another Jackson trey helped the visitors reach the final break with a 58-55 lead.

Kephart opened the final period with eight points for the home side, but a successful “and-one” from Parker saw Stars still lead by three at the midway point in the quarter, and the first five minutes saw six lead changes. A block from Selvey following by a basket from the same player put Leopards back into the lead with 2:41 remaining, and the Big Cats never trailed again. A single free-throw from Steve Ogunjimi put Leopards three up with 11 seconds to go, and Selvey stole the ball in a melee under the hosts’ basket to wrap up the win.

Leopards: T Selvey 25, B Kephart 23, L Irish 12, S Ogunjimi 8, M Eames 4, M Quashie 3, B Moore 2, R Lloyd, R Alexander.

Juniors
Both the U18 & U16 boys returned to winning ways at Wodson, to stay in contention for play-off spots. The U16s beat Milton Keynes by three points - 66-63 and the U18s were 87-76 victors against Colchester United.