Leopards clear for take-off at Flyers (From Echo)

Leopards clear for take-off at Flyers

11:06am Wednesday 18th January 2012 in Basketball By Chris Phillips

LEOPARDS will travel to Bristol Academy Flyers in the semi-final of the National Trophy after a comfortable 84-74 win against Worthing Thunder on Sunday.

In front of another big crowd, Dejan Mihevc’s team picked up their sixth win in seven games to reach the semi-final for the second straight year and the third time in four seasons.

Vernon Teel was again on form as he collected his fourth triple-double of the season with 24 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in 32 minutes.

Fellow American Ousman Kru-bally added a 22 point, 15 rebound double-double, also in 32 minutes as the side occupying second spot in Division One were beaten.

Hank Rivers scored one of two free-throws to open the scoring for Thunder but Teel grabbed the rebound off his own miss and scored with a minute gone and the Big Cats led for the remaining 39 minutes.

Basildon-based Lukas Volskis hit his first of three three-pointers off Krubally’s assist to cap a 7-0 run in the first period and the young guard finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three steals.

David Buchberger also scored from downtown to put the hosts 24-10 up with two minutes remaining in the period and, although they failed to trouble the scorers again in the first period, the home side still led 24-14 at the first break.

Buchberger opened the second period scoring and a three-point play from Teel put Leopards up by 15 with three second period minutes remaining.

Krubally and Teel kept the score ticking over and the Big Cats went into the locker room with a 41-29 lead.

The lead peaked at 20 midway through the third period as John Lister hit a trey.

But Leopards noticeably relaxed, and allowed Worthing to pull it back to 66-55 at the final break.

The malaise continued as the visitors opened the fourth period with a 10-4 run capped by Rivers to make it a five-point game with seven minutes remaining.

But that was as close as the visitors came as Lister hit another three-pointer and the lead never dipped into single figures again during the last five minutes as Leopards closed out the win.

And that performance pleased coach Mihevc.

“It was expected to be a hard game, but with right attitude and maximum effort we controlled the game from the beginning and all players deserve congratulations,” said Mihevc.

“I would also like to thank to all the fans that come to watch and support us in a very decent numbers and I hope that they enjoyed the game.”

Leopards will face Thunder again this Saturday, this time away from home in the league.