Carnegie Come up Short against National Champions
Carnegie have most certainly been putting in some solid performances the past few weeks, the result just hasn’t been in their favour at the end of the game. Carnegie’s last four losses have been just one possession games within the last 30 seconds of each game, playing against arguably two of the best teams in the country, Bristol and London Leopards. Are they just unlucky? One thing is for sure, the results will start to fall in their favour in the final ten games of the season.
Sunday’s game against London Leopards was a close encounter throughout, with neither team taking a commanding lead. Leeds were forced to play without starting shooting guard Henry Wilkins through illness. After Carnegie took a 9-6 lead behind a Jack Stannard three pointer, Leopards would start to get into rhythm offensively taking a 22-13 lead. Dave Ajumobi would however drag it back to 22-15 with a tough lay-up through contact just before the buzzer.
After London’s Teel opened up with two free throws, on his way to 36 points in the game, Leeds would make their run behind some strong play from Josh Houghton. After hitting a three pointer, he would follow it up by getting fouled on his way to the basket, making two from two free throws to bring Leeds back to within one point. By the end of the half Carnegie would trail 43-39.
The second half would open up with Teel scoring 5 points straight to increase the deficit. But as within recent weeks, Carnegie would make a run of their own. Armand Anebo scored five of his fourteen points to complete yet another double double (14 points, 11 rebounds). Carnegie would take a 60-59 lead into the fourth quarter.
In the first five minutes of the final quarter no team could break free from the other, with the biggest lead being only 2 points. It was then Leeds that would make a small breakthrough, Anebo grabbed a huge offensive rebound and put it back in to stretch Carnegie’s lead to 5 points with three minutes remaining. However, back-to-back turnovers saw London capitalise and pull themselves right back into the game. After London had a 4 point lead with less than a minute to play, Ajumobi drove to the hoop and got fouled. He would make both free-throws to make it a one possession game with 38 seconds left to play. Out of the time-out, Ajumobi would take it upon himself to guard the game’s top scorer Vernon Teel. He succeeded in forcing a bad shot and grabbed the rebound to give Carnegie a chance to tie, however as Leeds pushed the ball up the court, they would turn the ball over and would never get that chance. Leopards scored on the buzzer and the game ended 76-72.
Top Scorers
Leeds Carnegie
Armand Anebo – 14 Points, 11 Rebounds
Dave Ajumobi – 12 Points, 6 Rebounds
Sean Clifford – 12 Points, 5 Rebounds, 5 Assists
London Leopards
Vernon Teel – 36 Points, 8 Steals, 7 Rebounds
Ousman Krubally – 20 Points, 15 Rebounds
Zak Wells – 6 Points, 10 Rebounds