Bradford Dragons made the long journey to Basildon Sporting Village at the weekend to play BA London Leopards.

However, the trip was in vain as the Leopards won 82-66 to continue their march up the English Basketball League Division One table, while the defeat dropped the Dragons to sixth.

The visitors started sluggishly, with a number of unforced turnovers as they struggled to contain the Leopards' EBL leading scorers Vernon Teel and Ousman Krubally, who were again outstanding.

Bobby Edmunds, on his way to a game-high 28 points for Dragons, kept them in the contest with a brace of triples in the first quarter, the Draogons trailing 21-14 at the first break.

With Krubally in early foul trouble and forced to sit out much of the next quarter, Dragons contained Leopards to 12 points but with 22 turnovers on the night, Dragons could not take proper advantage.

They won the quarter but trailed 33-28 at half-time after a dull first half.

After the break, as Dragons worked hard to restrict the Leopards' dynamic duo, David Buchberger started connecting with his perimeter shots to hit five triples on the night for Leopards as they pulled away to a commanding 67-42 lead at the final break.

With Teel and Krubally combining to showboat with a spectacular throw drown and then block on Rihard Sulcs, Leopards began to roll their bench's junior players into the game as Dragons edged the final quarter 24-21 but lost the game after a disappointing performance.

Dragons Coach Chris Mellor said : "It was a very poor performance from us.

"We didn’t compete on the boards and they ran in way too much easy stuff on the break. We were second best in every department."

For Dragons, Edmunds apart, Vance Silcott scored 13 points and Michal Ciesla nine.

Elsewhere, Dragons-2 men lost 79-50 at home to Burnley College in English Basketball League Division Four, and Dragons-3 men lost 102-39 at Horsforth Hustlers in Leeds League Division One .

However, Dragons' women returned to winning ways in a 51-23 home scoreline against Sheffield Gems.

With Dragons' under-18 and under-16 teams having their games postponed, an improving Dragons lost 63-50 at Hull Wasps in their English Basketball League Under-14 game.

In a double-header weekend, Dragons play Reading Rockets on at Rivermead Leisure Complex (6.30pm) and Bristol Academy Flyers on Sunday at Trinity Green sports hall, Bradford College, Trinity Road, Bradford BD5 0JE (4.15pm), both in EBL Division One.

Admission is £5 for adults and £2.50 for under-16s, concessions and students, and family tickets [adults plus two children] are £10. Admission is free for Dragons' club members.