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Crusaders make it a double
Reading Rockets (36) 80 - Coventry Crusaders (54) 97
Coventry & Warwickshire BUPA Crusaders travelled to Reading on Saturday night and overcame a fired up Reading Rockets team 80-97.
The Crusaders, playing away from home for the first time this season, were not sure of what to expect from the Rockets. This weekend also sees most of the teams playing Saturday and Sunday, and that was also playing on the minds of both teams.
The teams both played some good basketball in the opening period with the Rockets scoring 26 points in the first quarter and the Crusaders scoring 30 points - a whole lot of offence and very little defence.
After the opening quarter Crusaders Head Coach Dip Donaldson looked to his bench for some better defence. After making some substitutions the Crusaders started to make an impact to the game.
The second quarter was when the Crusaders outscored the Rockets 24 to 10. Manny Sharland and Jamie Blake were scoring on the break and putting great pressure on the top players for the Rockets. Sharland scored ten first half points. Blake scored and dived on the floor for loose balls. Drew Barrett also contributed for the Crusaders, leading scorers at half time with 15 points.
BUPA Crusaders will be facing the Reading Rockets once more in the Trophy competition and twice in the Conference League. They are a well-disciplined team who didn't particularly have a good shooting night against the Crusaders, but Donaldson believes they will do well this season.
Donaldson was pleased with the result on Saturday. "It's always a little unsettling playing a team you don't know anything about and good to get the first encounter over with. Next time we play them we will have a lot better idea of what to expect. All in all, our players did well! It was a good win for us."
Rockets Scorers: Icelly 2, Durrant 4, Johnson 4, Bristol 6, Eames 8, Cooper 11, Hodds 13, York 13, Smith 17
Crusaders Scorers: Rhooms 2, Borde 4, Harper 7, Weaver 8, Sharland 13, Pope 13, Blake 15, Collins 16, Barrett 19
Solent 97-83 Westminster
Solent broke their Trophy duck on Saturday with a 97-83 defeat of Westminster. Visiting Warriors set the tempo for the first quarter of this National Trophy game with their quick movement up-court and they
experienced initial success to go into a 10 - 20 lead by the seventh minute. Solent only came more into the game with the introduction of veteran player Alan Cunningham who quickly made his mark with several
baskets and some important rebounds at both ends of the court. Solent found it difficult to settle into any kind of rhythm despite the efforts of coach Mark Scott to rotate the players. A series of unsuccessful shots by Solent also compounded their problems as they trailed 17 - 25 at the end of the first quarter.
The newly signed American, Eric Cheers, came more into the game in the second quarter taking rebounds and making several assists, although he too found the shooting target hard to hit. Duane Laight, Alan Cunningham and Alan McDonald were Solent's main scorers as Solent narrowed the gap. It was a free throw from Duane Laight that tied the score at half time 43 all.
Although Westminster scored the first basket of the second half, the reply by Chris Sheldrick with a three pointer followed by another two points in quick succession put Solent into a lead that they would not surrender for the rest of the game. Laight, Cunningham (2) and Trevor Donaldson all added three pointers in
Solent's most succesful scoring quarter.
The constant fast pace of the game led to a plethora of foul calls, 39 in all. Westminster's tally was 22 fouls which included two player technical fouls for hanging onto the ring after spectacular dunks. Although the game never boiled over, there was a lot of intensity shown by both teams. Solent were always able to keep a comfortable distance ahead in the last quarter, despite neither team being able to score for the first three minutes in an error strewn period. Man-of-the-match Cunningham was substituted two
minutes from the end of the game to great applause from the 300 plus spectators at the game.
Scorers: Alan Cunningham 27 Duane Laight 18 Eric Cheers 18 Chris Sheldrick 13 Alan McDonald 8 Trevor Donaldson 7 Steve Davison 4 Rob McDonald 2
Solent's next game is at Ealing (September 29th 6pm) when they hope to include a second American player, John Bynum.
Interbasket 101-74 Westminster
Inter Basket continued to restore the pride of NBL Conference teams with their second victory of the weekend, this time over Westminster Warriors.
Following Saturday's victory over North London, another Division 1 side were the visitors to Inter's new home court at the Space Leisure Centre in Hackney. The Warriors had suffered defeat against Solent Stars
the previous evening and were anxious to establish their credentials against a team from the higher league.
Both sides started indifferently, with the visitors opening a 14-10 lead after 7 minutes on the back of early scores from Leon Bernard and Che Porteous. Inter regained their composure and with former England international Andrew Bailey converting 8 from 8 foul shots in the final three minutes of the quarter, the home side had a slender 20-19 advantage after the first period.
Porteous scored the first five points of the second quarter before Inter Basket went on their own 6-0 run, newcomer Perry Lawson scoring four. Westminster made two in a row before 5 straight from Frank Batimba gave Inter a 31-28 lead midway through the second period. Neither side were able to make a decisive break, both having 6-0 runs, before a Ben Smart score on the buzzer gave the home side a 43-38 lead at the half.
Still the teams continued to trade baskets before a three-pointer and then a foul shot from Mark Burton made it a one point game at 48-47. Inter moved out to 7, before replies from Westminster brought it back to 58-54. A 7-1 run in the last 3 minutes gave the home side the first double digit lead (65-55) at the end of the third stanza, Batimba with 10 in the period..
This seemed to end the visitors resistance as another 14-4 run took the lead to 20. Suddenly the shooting for Inter Basket seemed to click and no less than five 3-pointers in the final period took the lead to 30 before an outrageous score from inside his own half by Porteous on the final buzzer brought an end to proceedings.
For Inter Basket Batimba with 25, Bailey 22 and Lawson 18 led the way. For Westminster, Porteous 21, Barnard 18 and Burton 13 had been the top marksmen.
Oxford Devils 87-94 Coventry Crusaders
Sunday afternoon saw the Coventry & Warwickshire BUPA Crusaders complete a winning weekend of basketball in the National Trophy competition, defeating Oxford 87-94 in overtime.
Hosts Oxford started the better of the two teams scoring quickly and with ease against a jaded Crusader team. Within the first couple of minutes the Devils were 14-04 up and from that point on the Crusaders knew that they were in for a tough time.
Something was missing in the players they lacked intensity, they missed shots, they were turned over and all too rapidly they were losing their grip on the game. By the end of the half the Devils were 20 points up. Old Crusader player Steve Riley was the centre of all Oxford's attacks and everything they hit went in.
The second half started much the same; again the Crusaders were slow to come out of the blocks. Coach Dip Donaldson became animated and swapped a few things around, but by this time the Crusaders were 29 points adrift and it looked like it just wasn't going to be their day. Famous last words, suddenly the team began to play. Out of nowhere the lead was slashed to 20 points with one quarter remaining. The team began to put pressure on the Devils. The game had turned, Oxford became uneasy, but surely they had the
game won? Or did they?
With eight minutes remaining the Devils were 18 points up, the Crusaders travelling fans began to raise the roof. As the fans noise increased the team stepped up another gear. Jamie Blake and Matt Collins put the pressure on; as they hustled the other players picked up the ball and scored the much-needed baskets.
Three minutes were remaining and the score was 81-76 to the Oxford Devils. The Crusaders needed a two-point basket, a turnover and a three-point basket to take the game into overtime. Guess what? They did it! Drew Barrett scored two from the foul line to make the score 81-78. The Devils started their attack but lost the ball to Matt Collins, he threw the ball to Chris Harper and Chris scored the vital three points that took the game into overtime. All this happened with only 1 minute to go.
The game went into overtime, five more minutes of pain and anguish, nobody but the players could watch it was that intense. Like what happened in the last quarter, the Crusaders stepped up another gear. This time it was their turn to take the lead and to secure the win.
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