Essex & Herts Leopards 71 (20,31,56)
Worthing Thunder 64 (16,29,41)

Leopards survived a late Thunder fight-back as they finished their EBL Trophy campaign with a victory, on Saturday. Steve Ogunjimi led the Big Cats’ scoring with 19 points as Jon Burnell’s side ended Worthing’s chances of progressing to the semi-final.

With his side unable to qualify for the last four, Burnell opted to experiment, and begun the game with a three-guard line-up, giving Sam Salter his first start of the season in place of Laurent Irish. An even first period saw the sides tied at 8-8 after five minutes, but with Ogunjimi hitting ten points despite missing three free-throws, the home side gradually edged ahead, and an Ogunjimi dunk with 19 seconds of the quarter remaining sent Leopards into the first break with a 20-16 lead.

Scores from Rani Malik and Stephen Gayle saw Worthing level the score, but a pair of Troy Selvey baskets restored the home side’s advantage. Steve Vear and Pat Bates scored to put the hosts on level terms again before a single Errol Seaman free-throw launched an 8-1 run which put Leopards into a lead they were to never relinquish. Captain Matt Eames, Seaman and Selvey all scored for the Big Cats, and they went into the locker room with an eight-point half-time advantage after Sky Buck hit a huge three two seconds before the buzzer.

Selvey hit the first seven Leopards’ points of the second half as the Big Cats maintained their double-digit lead. A dunk from Selvey launched the 9-0 Leopards run, which featured an Ogunjimi three and the rarity of a pair of the successful free-throws from Roger Lloyd, and despite four Worthing points to close out the quarter, the Big Cats reached the final break with a 15 point lead.

Buck launched the fourth period with second trey of the night, and scores from Selvey and Seaman extented Leopards’ lead to 23, at 64-41 with seven minutes on the clock. The home side noticeably relaxed, allowing Thunder to scored nine unanswered points, before Burnell called a time-out with 4:06 on the clock, and Salter ended the run with a three from Buck’s assist. That proved to be only a temporary respite for the home side, as they were outscored 14-4, but with a comfortable lead, the Leopards held on to gain revenge for the 20-point hammering they had suffered on the south at the start of October.

Leopards: S Ogunjimi (19), T Selvey (18), S Salter (11), S Buck (10), E Seaman (9), R Lloyd (2), M Eames (2), D Jones, L Irish, E Gregory (DNP)