Basketball:Mims cancels break time for leaders Leopards

By Richard Taylor

THE LEOPARDS can forget about days off for the rest of the season, despite regaining the Budweiser League initiative with Saturday night's 91-87 overtime win over Birmingham Bullets in front of 6,500 fans at the NEC.

Billy Mims, the Greater London Leopards' coach, rewarded a recent five- game winning streak with a three-day break. However, his players returned to lose 88-81 at home to Derby Storm last week and then scraped a 97-94 win over the struggling Manchester Giants.

``We came back too soft mentally. I'll have to rethink whether it's a good idea giving our guys a break,'' said Mims, after Saturday's win put them six points clear of Bullets and Sheffield Sharks, both of whom have three games in hand.

l Steve Catton has resigned as chief executive of the English Basketball Association, a week after he and the EBBA were lambasted by the now suspended England coach, Laszlo Nemeth, for failing to support the national team.