Leopards now want six of the best

Essex Leopards will look to maintain their perfect record in Division One when they host Newham Neptunes at the Brentwood Centre on Sunday.

The Big Cats faced the East London side a fortnight ago in the National Trophy, and a strong second half performance helped them progress into the quarter-finals with a 96-68 victory.

Newham have struggled this campaign, after losing several key players to the Leopards in the summer.

They have won just once in their opening six league matches and recently finished bottom of the Trophy South group with a 1-5 record.

The Big Cats will be looking to collect a sixth straight league success, especially after they recorded a thrilling overtime win against Derby Trailblazers last Saturday.

Robert Youngblood’s team edged out the leaders 92-89 in a titanic battle at the Noel Baker Sports Hall.

Leopards took a depleted squad to Derby, with only eight fit players.

However, it didn’t stop them coming out on top against a Trailblazers team that had won eight of their opening nine matches prior to last weekend.

Dave Ajumobi led the way for the Essex side with 23 points, while Will Ashby and Albert Margai both hit 18 points in the dramatic win.

The opening quarter proved to be the highest scoring as both offences got going, although the hosts came in with a four-point lead.

At the half way point this was trimmed to three points, but the Derby side were in the ascendancy 50-47 up.

The Trailblazers left the Big Cats behind in the third quarter as they moved into a six-point lead.

And it grew to nine in the final quarter before a grandstand finish saw Leopards hit back, and Ajumobi sent the game into overtime at 85-85.

The scoring notably slowed down in the extra period, but Ronnie Baker’s big three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining put the Essex side in charge and they held on for another thrilling win to keep up their excellent form.