THE Essex Leopards will look to build on last week’s 69-65 victory against Reading Rockets when they make the long trip to Tees Valley Mohawks on Saturday.

The two sides have built up something of a rivalry over the last couple of years, with Leopards beating the Middlesbrough team in the 2013 National Trophy final as well as knocking them out of the play-offs in the same campaign, and last season saw Robert Youngblood’s team record two narrow victories against them.

After a poor Trophy campaign which saw Steve Butler’s team lose all five games and defeats in their first two Division One games, Mohawks have strengthened their squad including the addition of American guard Charles Rhodes and the move has clearly worked with wins against Hemel Storm and Bradford Dragons over the weekend.

Leopards made a winning start to their Division One campaign with a narrow victory against Rockets, at the Brentwood Centre on Friday evening The Big Cats return to the Brentwood Centre on Sunday November 23 when they host Bradford.

In a battle between last season's top two in Division One, the visitors led for just one minute of a tight encounter and trailed by eight with under two minutes remaining but forced a thrilling finish before the home side sealed the win at the free-throw line.

Both sides went into the game under-sized with Lawrence Brown (back) and Lukas Wingegarner (illness) missing for the Big Cats and Danny Carter (hamstring) sitting out for the Rockets, and Leopards’ coach Youngblood was forced to come out of retirement to finish with four points and six rebounds in 13 minutes of action.

Dave Ajumobi led the home side with a 17 point, ten rebound double-double, with Byron Richards adding three treys in his 13 points. Debutant Matic Zupanc marked his debut with 11 points, while veteran point guard Ronnie Baker showed a calming influence at key times, finishing with ten points.

Rockets were led by 13 points from Adria Baiget Marco with Deion Turman and Matt Davis adding 11 each.

Leopards had led by ten at the final break, and scores from Albert Margai and Van Beest saw the home team move 59-50 ahead with four minutes remaining and Zupanc made it an 11 point game with three minutes on the clock.

A Turnman dunk followed by a Davis trey saw Rockets back within six before Youngblood replied at the other end.

The visitors still had one more run left as they hit five unanswered points capped by a pair of Guardia Marti free-throws to make it a three point game with 40 seconds on the clock, and after Ajumobi and Guardia Marti had each split a pair at the line it was 64-61 with 25 seconds left.

In the end it was Baker who sealed the win as the 45-year-old remained ice cool at the foul to sink four straight shots and send the noisy Brentwood crowd home happy.

The Big Cats return to the Brentwood Centre on Sunday November 23 when they host Bradford before Newham Neptunes are the visitors to Harlow Leisure Zone on Saturday November 29.