On the evidence of Sunday's display at the Brentwood Centre, the Leopards are beginning to turn their season around.

The Leopards took revenge for their defeat in the Uniball Trophy quarter-final and posted a warning to other teams in the Southern Conference that this team will scrap to gain as high a ranking as possible in the end of season play-offs.

In his programme notes, club owner Ed Simons commented that the qualities of heart and passion had been missing in recent performances.

After the previous week's poor showing at Milton Keynes, Coach Bob Donewald's training sessions appeared to spark a radical transformation, as players performed with intensity and an enthusiasm that home fans had not witnessed for some time.

Leopards took the court with a starting five including Steve Ogunjimi that, on paper, indicated a four guard offense.

As a result, while being at a disadvantage inside, the Leopards were able to move the ball at speed and were effective against Thames Valley's fast breaks.

Thames Valley opened well by establishing an early 10-6 lead.

However, in the first quarter, Kenya Capers was 'on fire', as he hit eight consecutive points to take the home side into a 17-12 lead and went on to score 16 points in the first period.

The game became increasingly physical, and the Tigers point-guard Casey Arena was called for throwing an elbow and soon after, Leopards' Rashod Johnson was forced to the bench after collecting his third foul.

This saw the introduction of Dave Attewell into the game as Johnson would take no further part in the first half.

Baskets from Capers and Brandon Brantley ensured that the Leopards ended the first quarter ahead by six points (29-23).

Attewell extended Leopards lead to eight at the start of the second quarter, but two baskets from Arena cut the lead to four points.

Donewald called a time out and a Jason Kimbrough's basket restored Leopards' six point advantage which they kept for the next four minutes.

As the first half ran down Tigers' Billy Singleton began to assert himself and was instrumental in Thames Valley putting together a 6-0 run which enabled them to take the lead at 38-39.

However, the Leopards bounced back, and scores from Brantley and Kimbrough meant that Leopards went in at half time to a standing ovation from their fans, as they led by three points. (44-41)

At the start of the third period, Johnson returned to court and the Leopards again established the upper hand with a three point play from Capers followed by baskets from Kimbrough and Johnson.

The Tigers hoped to work inside through Jason Siemon but his effectiveness was reduced as he began to accumulate fouls.

Midway through the third period, Siemon collected his third foul when Attewell drew a charge against him, and shortly after, his fourth followed, after a foul on Tresvant.

As a result, the Tigers were forced to rely on the outside shooting of Arena and Meldrum, but the Leopards had other ideas as the third period saw them put together a 10-2 run to move out to a nine point lead (74-65).

This period witnessed the Leopards finding their range from beyond the three point line with Kimbrough hitting three "three pointers" in the quarter.

At the start of the final period two baskets from Johnson and one from Tresvant saw the Leopards pull out to a 15 point lead.

To the delight of the Leopards fans Siemon then fouled out after being called for another foul on Tresvant.

With a little over four minutes remaining, Tigers Coach Paul James called a time out to try to rally his players and briefly they pulled it back to a eight point deficit, but any nerves among home fans were quelled as Kimbrough took the game over down the stretch.

In past weeks, foul shooting has been a nightmare for the Leopards, but Kimbrough showed how it should be done, by hitting eight out of eight in the final minute to take the Leopards over the 100 point mark.

In the final seconds, Leopards added the final touches with a Johnson fast break move followed by a Brantley slam.

At the final buzzer, Leopards had accumulated 104 points, having scored nine out of 16 shots from three point range, and 23 of 28 from the foul line.

On an individual basis, all eight players who took the court contributed to the win, but none more so than point guard Kimbrough who collected a game high total of 33 points.

The Leopards points scorers were: Jason Kimbrough 33, Kenya Capers 26, Rashod Johnson 19, Brandon Brantley 14, John Tresvant six, Dave Attewell two, Mark Quashie two, and Steve Ogunjimi two.

Net bound . . the London Leopards attack the Thames Valley Tigers basket in Sunday's Southern Conference match at the Brentwood Centre.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.