WITH both teams looking to improve on their joint placing in the National League Division One, this was always going to be a tough contest.

The long road trip to Leeds Carnegie in Yorkshire made it even more demanding for Taunton Tigers. Despite this Taunton started strongly and ended the first quarter 18-21 ahead.

Early in the second, Leeds capitalized on some sloppy play by the visitors which enabled them to take the lead, but successive three pointers by Alistair Bird and Tim Clifford evened the game at 29-29 midway through the period.

The lead then changed several times before Tigers again edged ahead by two points to go into the locker room 37-39 up.

At the restart, the lead was immediately stolen back by the home side with successive shots from outside the arc.

This situation was compounded for the visitors by having several of their inside shots blocked by Leeds' big import players.

With two more shots being drained from outside, Carnegie opened-up a seven-point lead with three minutes remaining in the quarter.

Some determined play after a time-out called by Tigers' coach, saw them claw back the deficit to two points at 59-57 before the final break.

Another three at the start of the final session from Tim Clifford, followed by a score from a strong rebound by Chris Page, restored a three-point lead for Tigers.

Leeds then went on an 11-2 run to gain a six-point advantage, but a positive response by Taunton saw them get back to within a single point with three minutes of the game remaining.

Sadly, their further efforts to chase the game only had the reverse effect and they conceded more points, resulting in them losing a hard fought game 87-73.

Tigers' Leading Scorers: Chris Page 24, Tim Clifford 15, Joe Andrews 12.