Leopards 77 (16,43,61)
Worthing Thunder 79 (29,45,60)

Game Stats

Poor foul shooting cost Leopards as their National Cup dreams were ended by league champions Worthing Thunder on Sunday.

The Big Cats missed 11 of their 19 fourth period foul shots, including four in the final 20 seconds as they came agonizingly close to ending Thunder’s unbeaten start to the season.

Carl Latham-Henry led the Big Cats with 22 points, while Gareth Laws hit 15 and Sam Salter 13, but the result left Coach Jon Burnell a disappointed man:

“All the signs are good for our team, but I’m absolutely gutted about the two point loss. We played pretty well, and we are beginning to get where we need to be if we are going to win games like this. I’m really disappointed, because it was a real chance to win something.”

In common with the previous night’s win at Coventry, the Big Cats had a poor first period, and although a Salter trey gave them a 7-6 lead after three minutes play, a 16-2 run from the visitors put them in control at 22-11 with three minutes of the period remaining. A Laws three-pointer broke the run, but a basket from Cleve Woodfork and a James Mooney trey sent the visitors into the first break with a 29-16 lead.

Latham-Henry started the second period with a pair of baskets to cut the deficit to nine before Matt Collins scored his first points in a Leopards’ vest with a trey. The hosts still trailed by 14 midway through the quarter, but Bright, Latham-Henry and Salter all contributed in a 13-2 run to drag themselves back into the game, and scores from Lee McCarthy and Salter cut the deficit to two at half-time.

Demetrice Scott scored the first four points of the second half to extend Thunder’s lead to six, but five Latham-Henry points in a 9-2 run put Leopards into a 52-51 lead with just over five minutes of the period gone. The rest of the period proved to be a nip-tuck affair, but late treys from Collins and Bright sent Leopards into the final break with a 61-60 lead.

Scott and Dan Midgley put Worthing into a three point lead with the first scores of the fourth period, before Salter leveled things with another score from the Lane of Plenty. A Leigh Greenan basket put Leopards ahead as the midway stage of the period approached, but four points from Midgley and a James Mooney free-throw saw Thunder open a 72-68 lead.

One-from-two foul shooting from both McCarthy and Lathem-Henry halved the deficit before James Brame scored a trey two and half minutes before the end to give Thunder a 75-70 lead. McCarthy scored proved to be game’s final field goal to cut their lead to three, but missed the bonus shot after being fouled by Ryan Marrast.

Laws was fouled while taking a three pointer for the second time in the game, and sunk two of the three foul shots to make the score level the score at 75 before Scott sunk three out of four free-throws after being fouled by Collins and Bright.

As they game went into the final 20 seconds, Bright was fouled by Midgley, but missed both free-throws, and after McCarthy had collected the rebound he was fouled by Okolie Ugbana. However, he emulated Bright by missing both shots, leaving Laws with no choice but to foul Marrast to stop the clock. Incredibly the Canadian/British dual national also missed both shots, and although Latham-Henry managed to get a shot off on the buzzer, it fell short and Leopards’ cup hopes came to an end.

Leopards: C Latham-Henry 22, G Laws 15, S Salter 13, S Bright 9, L McCarthy 8, M Collins 6, L Greenan 2, M Eames 2, L Volskis.