ESSEX Leopards coach Robert Youngblood labelled Howard Crawford as the best player in the English Basketball League after he helped the Big Cats secure two vital victories at the weekend.

Crawford top scored with 21 points to help Leopards move top of the Division One table with a 76-70 win against the previously unbeaten Newham Neptunes at the Brentwood Centre.

And he then topped that by bagging an outstanding 37 points in Leopards’ 79-73 National Cup quarter final victory at Loughborough Riders to earn praise from coach Youngblood.

“I feel Howard is the best player in the EBL,” said Youngblood.

“In the cup game I had a big decision to make because competition rules meant I could only pick one of our American players.

“But Howard delivered for us and we pulled it through in the last quarter with some great defence as we restricted them to just 10 points.

“I’m obviously very pleased with our weekend’s work because we knew it would be tough and probably our biggest weekend of the season so far.

“We had to take care of business against Newham and I thought we played well and pulled it out when we needed to. Howard [Crawford] was fantastic, and Kris [Clark] had a big game for us, ran the team really well and controlled the game.”

Leopards have now not been beaten in seven games and they continued their run of good results without point guard Ronnie Barker who has been sidelined with a dislocated shoulder.