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Coventry plunge new depths           Round-Up NBL Conference: Teesside 120 Coventry 47 On the way to becoming the most decorated side in the NBL, TVL Mohawks have delivered numerous maulings to their opponents over the past five seasons.  But none have been dismissed quite so easily as the unlucky Coventry Crusaders, who ambled into Eston Sports Academy on Sunday to take on the mighty Teessiders’ with a patched-up squad of just six players, including four inexperienced teenagers, and were given the biggest thrashing in Conference League history when sinking to a 73 point defeat (120-47). With Mohawks’ biggest game of the season fast-approaching - the National Trophy final against Worthing Thunder at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena on Sunday - head coach Tony Hanson admitted it was not the preparation he or his players were hoping for, but insisted that it was better than no game at all.  He said:  “Any kind of game is useful, although we could have done with stiffer competition.  Under the circumstances we had to take what we could get and at least we got a game out of it, whereas Worthing had the weekend off.” Seeing such an understrength team facing them lit up the faces of some players.  And Hanson had to keep them on a leash, warning them to approach the game in precisely the same way as any other and not get too carried away with breaking records. “We didn’t go into it thinking about the scoreline, but more about what we needed to do to get ready for Worthing,” he said.   “We approached it exactly the same as we would against any opponents and looked at it as preparation for the final, which is going to be a big game for us.” Exactly what Mohawks gained from the exercise, apart from getting a fixture out of the way, remains to be seen at Birmingham.  This was one-way traffic - particularly the first half where, if statistics were readily available, they would surely show that at least another two records were broken – the lowest score in a single 10-minute session, when Crusaders could muster just two points in the second quarter, and the lowest return over two quarters after Mohawks allowed only 9 points to be scored over the entire first half. The game was not altogether without interest.  In possibly the most unselfish piece of coaching, Hanson rotated his bench by switching all five on-court players for all five from the bench once in each quarter, giving every member of the squad an almost equal share of court time. And Lijah Perkins, who said in a recent interview that after the Christmas break he wanted the team to treat fans to some ‘fancy stuff’, led by example and, along with Steve Pilkington, Ralph Bucci, Carl Miller and Jon Stonebridge, put on a double-figure display of crowd-pleasing slam dunks and ally-oops.  At times the moves became a little over-elaborate, with players tripping over themselves in their attempts to perform some extreme, unrehearsed new moves, but it was all done with the best of intentions. If the writing was not already on the wall when four of Crusaders’ six-man outfit had to look up into the eyes of players more than a foot taller and anywhere from two to six stones heavier, then the signs were very clear as soon as the action began.  Perkins got the scoring underway after picking himself up off the floor following a slip, and Jason Swaine followed with a quick basket with the help of Carl Miller, who made a telling downcourt pass after pouncing to pluck the ball out of the air in the first of a glut of interceptions.  The Midlanders, on the other hand, had a serious case of the jitters, with nothing working for them.  It was almost three minutes before they had a shot at the basket, and the long-range effort by Hardeep Khosla failed to register, leaving the only serious activity at the hoop they were attacking a five minute delay while the rig was given some attention after it was deemed out of line by match officials.  Mohawks already had 12 on the board when, in the fourth minute, Crusaders finally got off the mark.  And when they did, through player/coach Dip Donaldson, it was the start of six-in-a-row.  Tony Hanson made his first full line change, leading to an immediate change in fortune and a rousing 14-1 finish to the quarter.  But this was just the start of arguably the most emphatic 15 minutes even Mohawks’ spoiled followers have ever witnessed. Like the opening quarter, the home side was quickest off the mark with another seven points added to their tally before Crusaders, once again through Donaldson, got on the scoreboard again.  Coventry were not entirely without their own charges at Mohawks’ basket, but the shots that were made often fell long, short or wide.  All too often though, they were stopped by a brick wall of a defence that forced numerous 24 second violations and was able to steal the ball seemingly at will and convert it into points. Twenty-six unanswered points leading to the halftime break made it an incredible 47-3 run spanning the last five minutes of quarter one and the whole of quarter two, giving Mohawks a huge 59-9 lead going into the second half. Despite the pounding, Coventry came out with renewed focus for the second half and put on a much-improved display.  Eight threes over the half against the meanest outfit in the division is uncharted territory for even the top clubs. For all the home side’s dominance, Hanson’s high-flyers managed only six themselves in the whole game, leading Tony Hanson to issue a reminder to his players that they are not unbeatable. “It just shows you, no matter what the opposition is, if you don’t focus on the things that you need to focus on other teams can reply positively.  And Coventry did that with some big threes and by stepping it up a little bit.  “It showed that we needed to concentrate on a few things ourselves and we did.”   Reading 102 Hackney 80 Hackney White Heat's first senior match of the new year saw another disappointing defeat, this time at the hands of Reading Rockets in Berkshire.  With a number of experienced players unavailable due to illness and injury, this was always going to be a difficult start for Hackney against a traditionally well drilled outfit.  The home side welcomed back Head Coach Dave Titmuss, who has had a four month sabbatical, and he galvanised his troops with superb runs over the first six minutes over each of the first two quarters.  In the first period, Reading took a 19-6 run as their transition offence brought them a number of easy scores.  For Hackney, only Damion Modeste  showed any confidence near the basket but despite his eight points his side trailed 31-14 at the end of the opening quarter. A 17-2 run at the start of the second stanza effectively settled matters as Reading led 48-16, although the visitors managed to reduce the margin to 54-25 at the half time break, on a 9-4 run over the final two minutes. With Reading resting their American Jermaine Williams, the second half had a much more even look.  Three consecutive three-point shots from Hackney, two from Richard Marson, restored some pride, but with 6' 10" John Hodds performing his usual damage around the basket, the hosts extended their  margin to 80-49 at the end of three quarters. The final period saw the best display from White Heat as they finally started to exert some defensive pressure, leading to steals and easy fast break  baskets; a 12-3 run midway through the period being their best effort of the evening.  However Rockets were never really troubled and ran out convincing  102-80 victors on the evening.   Click here to discuss this story

 

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