Men's Cup - Magic come back to defeat Leopards
14th December 2009by Dave Ryan
London Leopards 69 (21,37,53) - Manchester Magic 77 (8,37,51)
Manchester Magic produced a strong fourth period to reach a fourth straight National Cup final with a victory at London Leopards on Sunday.
With American guard Brandon Kimbrough likely to be out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL, teenage guard Josh Houghton stepped up to lead the Magic with 19 points, including five from eight three-points. David Watts finished with a 16 point, ten rebound double-double while Stefan Gill also scored 16 points.
Carl Latham-Henry led the Big Cats with 19 points on his return from injury, while Leigh Greenan finished with 15 points but was restricted to 24 minutes of action due to foul trouble, but the rest of the hosts' line-up failed to deliver as Jon Burnell's team lost a semi-final against Magic for the third time in 2009.
In a game that saw nine lead changes and seven ties, the Big Cats never used their height advantage as they were out-rebounded 43-34 by a Magic team who now play in the final for the fourth straight season.
Adam Slater opened the scoring for Magic, with Greenan replying but those proved to be the only points of the first five minutes.
It was Greenan who got the Leopards moving, converting an and-one after being fouled by Nathan Schall before making it 7-2 off a Latham-Henry assist. A block followed by a pair of Ignazio De Ferrari free-throws saw the lead extended and with Latham-Henry hitting a three-pointer, the Big Cats went into the first break with a 21-8 lead.
Houghton had scored most of Magic's points in the first period - hitting a pair of three-pointers - and London still failed to stop the Great Britain under-20 international as he opened the second quarter by hitting another pair from downtown.
Greenan took his tally to nine, but a 16-5 run saw Magic grab the lead with four minutes of the half remaining.
With Gill hitting ten straight Magic points and Greenan scoring only one of four free-throws, Manchester's lead grew to 36-29 going into the final two minutes of the half. A pair of Marlan Henry free-throws broke the run and with Latham-Henry also scoring from the charity stripe they closed out the period strongly as Sam Richardson levelled the scores with a buzzer-beating jump-shot off Ronnie Baker's assist.
Ambokile Bell opened the second half scoring for Magic, but Greenan levelled the score and launched a 9-0 run which saw Latham-Henry, Henry and Baker all score. David Watts and Baker exchanged three-pointers, but Watts sunk another from downtown and although Richardson hit a pair of free-throws, Leopards' lead was cut to 53-51 going into the final break.
Watts levelled the score in the opening play of the fourth period, but Latham-Henry hit a jump shot and De Ferrari sunk a three - his only one in ten attempts - to put Leopards up by five. Greenan picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the period to leave the game and coach Burnell received a technical as he disputed the call.
Yann Fesbender and Gill converted three of the subsequent five free-throws and that proved to be the turning point as Magic hit ten straight points to take a lead they never lost again. Latham-Henry broke the tear, but with the Big Cats failing to convert five straight shots, Magic kept ahead.
A Baker trey halved the deficit to 69-66 but Tom Pearson replied at the other end and Manchester were still six up going into the final minute.
Latham-Henry hit a trey with 48 seconds left, but that proved to be the final time the Big Cats troubled the scorers and Magic wrapped things up from the foul line.