West Herts Warriors 77 (14, 41, 58)
Essex & Herts Leopards 84 (21, 44, 61)

Leopards statistics.pdf

Coach Burnell's reduced Leopards squad defeated West Herts Warriors at Watford today, in the first build-up game for the new season. Mark Quashie, Ben Wallis & Tom Christie were all missing for Leopards, so England junior Dan Clark guested and point guard Barry Gooch returned after a season away from the sport.

Americans Hayden Herrin and fellow former USAO team-mate 'Scoop' Whicker had only arrived in London on Wednesday and so had attended just a single practice session, before today's match. Herrin though left off from where he finished for the Ware Rebels last season, covering every inch of the court, instigating the plays and scoring jumpers from inside and outside the arc. Whicker also picked up some early points but took a while to settle in his first game in England.

Led by Herrin Leopards stormed into a convincing lead, which was up to 14 points halfway through the second quarter. The Warriors though will be competitive in EBL Division 2 this season and aided by some soft defence, came back strongly to reduce the lead to three at the half.

It was then nip and tuck until deep into the fourth before Danny Scott really started to control the boards and Brian Moore provided a steadying influence off the bench, to see Leopards home.

Leopards: H Herrin (36), S Whicker (18), D Scott (15), B Moore (9), D Clark (4), M Eames (2)