MK Lions vs BA London Leopards: Game report
It was a BBL Trophy ‘battle of the cats’ at the Prestige Basketball Centre on Sunday Night, as MK Lions played host to the BA London Leopards.
The battle was cut short from the start however, as it was the home team that were just too big (famous words of Vince Macaulay) for the London visitors.
The Lions roared to yet another impressive victory, 113-72 and continued their pursuit of BBL Trophy success.
The result itself was little shock to many, yet the EBL side were faced with an early unlucky fight with the rim as much as with their opponents.
As they fought with the edge of the basket resulting in little net time, the host’s flew away with a 20-4 lead half way through the opening period. Bolds, Sturt and Crawford all dominant from tip off. The first quarter ended with the home side up 28-14.
The continued link play between the three big guys, followed through into the 2nd quarter. The Lions now began to really relax into their stride, and an array of strong blocks and turnovers from Daniel Northern prevented the Leopards from ever really finding theirs.
As we reached half time the visitors trailed by 56-38, not through want of trying from Vernon Teel however, who eventually finished the game on a mighty 41 points!! A very impressive statistic from the Leopards shooting guard.
The second half began very similar to the first, with the same starting line up for the home side of Gill, Bolds, Northern, Crawford and Sturt. With an immediate foul on Crawford, the Lions continued to stretch their lead to twenty points 58-38.
The 3rd quarter saw a sudden burst of action from the visitors as both John Lister and Josh Johnson managed to get consecutive 3 pointers past the Lions defence. However, a great steal from Stefan Gill set up Demarius Bolds for 2, putting MK back in the driver’s seat.
Vernon Teel for 2 and Howard Crawford for another 2 ended the 3rd quarter action. Lions 93-60 Leopards.
To the delight of the crowd, the final period of the game saw the introduction of Lions fans’ favourite Ishmael Fontaine, and with little time on the court he sure did make an impression!!
His high energy and speed made him too hot to handle for the Leopards and with 7 minutes remaining, he treated us all to an almighty throw down!
The ‘Fontaine Dunk’ took the Lions to a 99-64 lead.
Great link play between Fontaine and Nathan Schall continued to add to the Lions dominance during the closing stages of the 4th quarter. All Lions made it on to the score sheet, and continued to hustle right until the dying seconds of the game.
It was an overall dominant, all round strong display from the home side whose next game is a difficult away fixture against Glasgow Rocks on 23 October.
The visitors put up a great display of fighting spirit, however that name ‘Vernon Teel’ is one they should be thankful for, notching up over half of their 72 points.
MK Lions:
Bolds (36), Crawford (17), Sturt (15)
BA London Leopards:
Teel (41), Lister (11), Wells (6)
