Leopards off mark as Bullets lose first
adidas London Leopards recorded their first victory of the Dairylea Dunkers Championship season with a thrilling 84-78 overtime victory over the Brighton Bears.
With the Bears enjoying their biggest lead of the night at 58-53 in the fourth quarter, the Leopards hit nine straight points to recapture the lead, only for Brighton to reply with five unanswered of their own. With two minutes left the Leopards led 66-65 and some 101 seconds later both sides had added just one score.
Larry Johnson netted just one of his two free throws 19s from the buzzer to make it 69-67, only for Lormont Sharp to level the game with 1s left with a score under the basket. In overtime Leopards got things under way with a Deppisch score - their only field goal of the extra five minutes - but they were always one step ahead of the Bears thanks to their 13-from-19 free throw shooting in overtime.
Both sides were without injured players, Robert Youngblood (groin) was out for the home side, whilst Jon Gaines (back) was missing for the Bears for the second straight game who had 29 points as a game high from Richard Scantlebury. Keyna Capers led the Londoners with 24.
Westfield Sharks Sheffield put an end to Pertemps Bullets Birmingham's 100% winning record with a hard fought 92-84 victory on Sunday night in Sheffield.
Sheffield pulled away with a 12-2 first quarter burst and kept their lead for much of the middle quarters. Bullets rallied in the third when Justin Phoenix and Lee Walker netted 13 of the last 15 points of the quarter to make it 76-71.
After Sharks had pulled clear again with the fourth quarter’s first six points, Birmingham mounted a 10-2 comeback, the last two of which came when Terrell Myers fouled out on a technical on 32 points.
Despite missing the game’s leading scorer the Sharks hit eight points to Bullets three in the last three minutes. Bullets were without England international Yorick Williams, who was struck down with illness on Sunday morning and Corey Jackson who was out with a knee injury.
Bullets main resistance came from Lee Walker who scored 22.
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