Basketball: Brown gets his own back on Leopards

Budweiser League champions, London Towers, ended a run of three defeats against local rivals, the Leopards, with a 93-76 victory at Wembley last night, which lifted them to joint top of the table alongside Chester Jets, who beat Crystal Palace 92-71.

The Leopards had knocked Towers out of the Cup by winning both legs of their semi-final and had beaten them earlier in the league, but last night were outscored 14-4 in the last three minutes.

Karl Brown, who joined Towers from the Leopards in the summer, played a major role and jointly led their scorers with 16 points alongside Danny Lewis.

Kevin Cadle, the Towers coach, said: "In the first three games against them Karl was a zero. In the last game he was so intimidated that when he had the ball they were daring him to shoot. He needed a big game against them."

Leopards' coach Billy Mims sparked Towers' match-winning run when his technical foul allowed them to score three free throws.

It was early to bed for the Towers on Saturday despite the drive back to London after their 101-88 League victory over Newcastle. The strain of their longest domestic road trip was eased by a 15-bed executive coach.