By Dave Ryan

 

Leicester Warriors continued their push for a top four spot with a 109-80 victory at Sheffield Arrows (stats).

 

The home side started strongly, scoring the first four points of the game, and building a 19-10 lead following a Ben Murray trey with three first period minutes remaining.

 

However, that was as good as it got for Arrows and a Joe Reynoso basket with 11 seconds on the clock saw Warriors trail only 25-22 going into the second quarter. Ramiah O'Neill buried a trey for the first score of the second period and Warriors never trailed again as they went into the half-time break 45-40 ahead.

 

Warriors led by as many as 13 in the third period, and an MD Janiska basket sent them into the final break with a 69-59 lead.

 

The fourth period was one-way traffic as the home side were outscored 40-21. Leicester reached the century mark with two minutes remaining off an O'Neill basket.

 

Six Warriors scored in double digits, led by 17 apiece from Janiska and Tyler Kathan, with O'Neill adding 14. Sebastian Chitagu led Arrows with 26 points, with Semi Eboigbe adding 15 and Ant Oxley 11. Warriors won the battle of the boards, out-rebounding Arrows 48-33 despite Eboigbe finishing with a double-double.

 

London Leopards also went down at home as they were made to pay for a poor start, going down 72-68 (stats) against Taunton Tigers.

 

Carl Latham-Henry again led the Leopards' scoring with 23 points in a 40-minute performance, while Marlan Henry added 18 points and Laurent Irish 12. American forward Chris Page led the Tigers with 28 points and nine rebounds, while Simon Kearney finished with 13 and Adam Rickwood 11.

 

Page drained a trey to open the scoring, and Tigers scored the first seven points of the period.

 

Latham-Henry broke the tear with a single free-throw, but a Kearney trey saw Taunton open a 14-3 lead with three first period minutes remaining.

 

London's offensive woes continued despite scores from Leigh Greenan and Ignazio De Ferrari, and with Tim Clifford hitting a pair of free-throws, Tigers went into the first break 19-8 ahead.

 

An Irish basket and a pair of Latham-Henry free-throws saw Leopards trim the deficit to eight points early in the second period, but two 6-0 runs saw Tigers continue the onslaught and despite a pair of Henry baskets, they went into the locker room trailing 45-31.

 

Tigers opened the second half with a 7-2 run, Irish scoring the lone Leopards' basket, as they made it a 19 point game.

 

Latham-Henry chipped away at the deficit from the foul line, and Irish added a free-throw, but Rickwood made it 54-36 with a pair from the charity stripe after Leopards' coach Jon Burnell was called for a technical foul.

 

With five third period minutes remaining, Leopards finally started playing, and a De Ferrari steal started a 14-0 run.

 

Latham-Henry hit one from two at the charity stripe before Henry took over, hitting three straight treys in a two minute spell before scoring a long two. Latham-Henry finished the run with a two, and although Kearney broke the run, Leopards went into the final break trailing just 56-50.

 

Latham-Henry opened the fourth period with a free-throw followed by a jump shot, and De Ferrari making it a one point game.

 

After two scoreless minute, Clifford drained a three to put Tigers up by four, and they remained ahead until treys from Latham-Henry and Irish saw Leopards level at 63 with 3:42 on the clock.

 

However, Kearney hit a long two and Rickwood scored a dagger three off Page's assist.

 

Irish reduced the arrears off Latham-Henry's assist, but Page effectively put the game beyond London with an and-one with 89 seconds remaining.

 

The Big Cats only managed two more field goal attempts, with Henry missing a trey before hitting one to beat the buzzer – but by then it was too late and Tigers had chalked up their sixth win of the campaign.