Basketball: Leopards suffer further mauling from Tigers

Thames Valley Tigers knocked Greater London Leopards further off course from a successful Budweiser League title defence with a 107-99 victory at Bracknell, to close the gap on joint leaders, Birmingham Bullets and London Towers on Saturday night.

Tigers, who reached their fourth National Cup Final in seven years by eliminating Birmingham in midweek, knocked Leopards out in the quarter- finals and next month meet them again in the last eight of the League Trophy.

Leopards were hit by a burst of five three-pointers in the first quarter, and although two "threes" from John White cut Tigers lead to 97-96, they sealed victory from the foul line as John McCord led their scorers with 38 points.

Bullets joined Towers at the top of the table, four points ahead of Tigers, with a 102-87 win at struggling Worthing Bears, whose new signing Greg Francis scored 31 points on his debut.

Birmingham continued to rest Tony Dorsey, who has a bruised retina, and made the game safe when Barbadian Nigel Lloyd inspired a 13-0 run.

Leicester City Riders, who play Tigers in next month's Cup final after beating Towers in midweek, cruised past the league's bottom team with a 112-86 win over Watford Royals.