The short-handed London Leopards ran out of steam at Barking Abbey on Sunday as they let a big lead slip to give Flyers the EBL Division One points after an 83-79 loss.

 

The Big Cats led by as many as 17 points midway through the third period, but with a depleted squad, they noticeably tired during the final 15 minutes as Flyers escaped with the victory.

 

Leading scorer Carl Latham-Henry missed the game due to illness and coach Jon Burnell was forced to draft in Lee McCarthy for his first outing of the season in order to field a seven-man roster.

 

In Latham-Henry's absence, Leigh Greenan led the Big Cats scoring for the seventh time this season, finishing with 26 points. Marlan Henry and Lukas Volskis also stepped up, finishing with 21 and 20 points respectively, but with no points coming from the bench Leopards' lack of strength in depth was clear to see.

 

Tyrone Treasure led Flyers with 23, with Greg Streete adding 15, Davis Bowne 11 and Asa Waite ten.

 

Baskets from Bowne and Streete opened the scoring for Flyers, but a pair of treys from Henry and some good inside play from Greenan and Sam Richardson put the hosts 10-8 up at the midway stage of the period.

 

However a Rob Loftman basket launched a 10-0 Bristol run, with the rest of the points coming from Asa Waite as Flyers took an 18-10 lead, but a rare four point play from Volskis saw the Flyers' lead cut to 24-18 going into the first break.

 

Scores from Volskis and Greenan plus a Chris Michaelides trey kept Leopards in touch before Greenan took over with seven points in a 9-0 run that saw the home team open a 34-30 lead with four second period minutes to play.

 

Greenan kept the hosts ahead before baskets from Tony Berry and Streete put Bristol into a 40-39 lead going into the final minute, but it was the home side who finished the half strongly as a Greenan put-back followed by treys from Michaelides and Volskis sent Leopards into the locker room 47-40 ahead.

 

Waite and Bown sliced that lead to three in the first 90 seconds of the second half, but five straight Volskis points followed by a Henry trey gave the Leopards a double digit lead.

 

Volskis and Henry continued to torment the West Country side from downtown as Leopards opened a 66-49 lead at the six minute mark, but as Greenan's points started to dry up, Flyers closed out the period with a 10-4 run cutting the home side's lead to 70-59 at the final break.

 

With Greenan and Volskis having also been ill during the week, Leopards clearly tired during the final period, being held scoreless for the first three minutes as Flyers cut their lead to 70-65.

 

Henry broke the run with a trey, but Flyers grabbed the lead with three minutes remaining as Jack Stannard and Tyrone Treasure drained from downtown.

 

Greenan converted a put-back to put Leopards in the lead, but that proved to be the final time they were ahead as Flyers hit six straight points.

 

Volskis gave them hope with a trey 12 seconds from time, but the hosts took too long to foul Flyers and when they did, Treasure hit the shot before converting the bonus to wrap up the win.

 

Full EBL results from 6/7 March