Leopards 102 (23,54,82)
Hackney White Heat 91 (17,38.61)

A season-high 28 points from Gareth Laws helped Leopards into the third round of the National Cup on Sunday afternoon.

The Big Cats will now face Division Two side BCU Wolverhampton at Wodson Park on Sunday November 11, with a home tie in the quarter-finals awaiting the winner.

With Lloyd Gardner coaching in Jon Burnell’s absence, the home side never trailed against Division Three side White Heat, but the visitors refused to lie down, and it wasn’t until Laws drained his six three-pointer of the night with two minutes remaining that the win was finally sealed.

Big men Nathan Wilson and Alex Scotland-Williamson returned after missing the previous night’s loss at Worthing, but Fola Adeleke sat out with an injured thumb.

Three-point shooting proved to be the key in the Big Cats’ victory, and they gave an early indication of that with Lucas Volskis opening the scoring from beyond the arc.

Three treys and an “and-one” from Laws saw the shooting guard help the home side into a 15-10 lead at the midway stage of the first period, and a three-pointer from captain Sam Salter saw them go into the first break with a 23-17 lead.

Four points from both Wilson and Carl Latham-Henry saw Leopards open a 35-24 lead with four minutes of the second period gone, and they kept their double-digit advantage with treys from Salter and Laws.

A pair of Deng Deng free-throws took the lead out to 14, and a Salter trey sent Leopards into the locker room with a 54-38 lead.

That lead grew to 18 points as Latham-Henry and Laws opened the second half scoring, and a basket from the former saw Leopards ahead by 20 points at the midway stage of the third period. Salter drained another three-pointer, and Leopards went into the final break with a 21 point lead

A Wilson put-back extended the lead to 23 points three minutes into the final stanza, but an 11-2 run from the visitors cut the margin back to 11 points with three minutes remaining.

Scores from Latham-Henry and Salter kept the scoring ticking over, and Laws iced the victory with another long range shot to send Leopards into the last 16.

Worthing Thunder 112 (25,55,83)
Leopards 76 (21,41,61)

A good performance by an undermanned and undersized Leopards team failed to prevent them ending their National Trophy campaign with a defeat on Saturday.

Facing a Worthing Thunder side who won the league and play-offs last season, the Big Cats were without all three big men, Leigh Greenan, Nathan Wilson and Alex Scotland-Williamson, forcing coach Jon Burnell to field a small line-up, with small forward Fola Adeleke having probably his first start in his career as a centre.

Despite that, the Leopards coach was delighted with how his team played: “I was really pleased with how they responded, especially in the first half. It would have been really tough even with the big guys, but I couldn’t have asked for anything more from them.”

Deng Deng and Gareth Laws led the Big Cats’ scoring with 17 point apiece, with Carl Latham-Henry (14) and Adeleke (11) also scoring well.

After Demetrius Scott had given the hosts the lead, Leopards proceeded to shock the home side as they went on a 11-7 run to take the lead, with Deng scoring nine of the points.

Back-to-back three pointers from Laws kept the Big Cats in front, and although the hosts outscored Leopards 14-4 in the closing stages of the period, another Laws trey ensured that Leopards only trailed 25-21 at the first break.

A poor start to the second period saw Thunder drain 14 straight points to effectively put the game beyond the visitors, but they continued to plug away, and a pair of Lukas Volskis free-throws sent the teams into the locker room with Worthing leading 55-41.

With Leopards struggling from the free-throw line, Thunder continued to stretch the lead in the third period, and it took a Deng lay-up followed by Laws’ fourth trey of the game to cut the deficit to 83-61 at the final break.

The fourth quarter saw the onslaught continue, as Leopards continued to struggle to grab rebounds, and although captain Sam Salter drained his second three-pointer of the night, it was left Latham-Henry to wrap up the scoring for the night.

Despite the manner of the defeat, the performance and commitment of the players was far superior to the previous year, when a supposedly more experienced and better side crashed to a 45-point loss.