Leopards 116 (26,49,78)
BCU Wolverhampton 95 (18,43,63)

Game Stats

A season-high 34 points from Gareth Laws helped Leopards power their way into the National Cup quarter-finals with a comfortable victory against BCU Wolverhampton at Wodson Park, on Sunday.

With Stix Bright adding 18 points, the Big Cats never looked in trouble against the Division Two side, although it wasn’t until the early stages of the fourth period that the home side finally wrapped the game up.

Laws and Bright opened the scoring for the home side with three point plays to put the Big Cats 6-0, before five N Fearon points cut their lead back to one. That was as close as the visitors ever came, though, and two more Laws treys in a 10-0 run saw the Big Cats open a 16-5 lead.

As was to prove the case for most of the game, the visitors did not lay down, however, and despite further three-pointers from Laws and Sam Salter, the Wolves outscored the home side 13-10 in the final four minutes to send Leopards into the first break with a 26-18 lead.

Scores from Matt Eames and Lee McCarthy kept Leopards in the lead despite Wolves outscoring them 9-4 during the opening three minutes of the second period. An 8-2 run capped by Laws’ fifth trey of the night saw Leopards lead 38-29, and although Robin Hall broke the run with a three, six unanswered points from the hosts stretch their lead to 12.

This should have been the stage where Leopards pulled away, but some poor shot selection saw them scoreless for the final two minutes of the half, and Wolves went an 8-0 run as the Big Cats reached half-time with a 49-43 lead.

Leopards started the second half strongly, scoring 11 of the first 13 points, with Carl Latham-Henry and Laws both converting three-point plays as they opened a 15-point lead. Six unanswered Wolves points got them back within ten, and it took a three point play from Salter to send Leopards into the final break with a 78-63 lead.

Salter and Fearon exchanged three pointers in the opening minute of the quarter, before an 11-2 run in which all of the starting five scored finally wrapped up the game for Leopards as they led 94-70 at the midway stage of the quarter. Laws drained his eighth three-pointer of the night before coach Jon Burnell finished the game with his bench players in action, with all ten of the roster getting on the scoresheet before Lukas Volskis completed the scoring to give Leopards a home game against Worthing on Sunday November 25.

Leopards: G Laws 34, A Bright 18, C Latham-Henry 17, L McCarthy 14, S Salter 9, M Eames 8, B Warden 6, F Adeleke 5, L Volskis 3, M Jarvis 2.