Leopards 83 (20,34,56)
Taunton Tigers 90 (23,40,61)

A poor defensive display saw Leopards’ National Trophy hopes come to an end with a home defeat against Taunton on Saturday.

Carl Henry-Latham led the Big Cats’ scoring with 23 points, but Jon Burnell’s side showed only glimpses of the form that gave them victory in the first home game of the competition.

“I really thought that our defence would win us the game, but we were very poor” admitted Burnell. “It doesn’t matter what level you’re playing at, if you don’t defend properly you won’t win the game.”

Leopards round off the competition on Saturday with a trip to league champions Worthing Thunder, but even if they caused an upset and won the game, they would need a mathematical miracle to qualify for the semi-final stage.

With Nathan Wilson injured, coach Burnell gave a first start to England junior international Leigh Greenan, while Carl Latham-Henry returned after missing the previous week’s loss in Sheffield.

Leopards started well, with Gareth Laws and Sam Salter both draining treys in an 8-2 opening run, but was as good as it got for the home side.

Tigers leveled the score at eight, and although the Big Cats hit back through Latham-Henry and a second Laws’ three, the visitors slowly took control and only some good foul shooting from Latham-Henry, Laws and Deng Deng kept Leopard in touch as they went into the first break trailing 23-20.

That deficit grew to double figures as Taunton opened with seven straight points before Latham-Henry broke the run.

A Dan Howe basket put the visitors ahead by 12 with four first half minutes remaining before a Salter trey launched an 8-2 run to close the half out with Tigers leading 40-34.

In common with the loss at Sheffield, Burnell’s half-time words clearly had an effect, and scores from Latham-Henry and Fola Adeleke saw the deficit cut to two in the opening minute of the third period.

This proved to be the best stage of the game for Leopards, despite Greenan’s continual foul trouble, and scores from Greenan and Laws kept them in touch before a pair of Latham-Henry baskets gave them a 48-46 lead at the midway stage of the game.

The home side seemed to take their foot off the pedal having regained the lead, and Tigers hit back with an 11-2 run, and never trailed again.

With Tigers holding a 57-50 lead with two minutes of quarter remaining, Laws scored back-to-back three pointers to cut the deficit to one before a trey from Alistair Bird and a Tim Clifford free-throw sent Taunton into the final break leading 61-56.

The sides exchanged baskets during the opening stages of the fourth period, with Leopards showing little sign of a comeback, and a Joe Andrews basket with four and a half minutes of the game remaining put Taunton 74-63 ahead,

This finally sparked the hosts into the life, and a trey from Salter sparked a 10-0 run to put them within a point.

That proved to be as close as they came, as Andrew drained a pair of treys, and although a Laws three gave Leopards’ fans some hope in the final minute, the visitors closed the game out from the foul line.

Leopards: C Latham-Henry 23, G Laws 20, F Adeleke 13, S Salter 11, L Greenan 6, L Volskis 5, D Deng 5, A Scotland-Williamson, M Jarvis (DNP), N Wilson (DNP), B Warden (DNP), M Johnson (DNP).