Nightmare In The Third Seals Crusaders Fate

Crusaders (38) 82 - Liverpool   (44) 90 

Crusaders were looking for a boost in team confidence on Saturday night as they faced Liverpool at the Coventry Sports Centre, but things did not go according to the game plan leaving Crusaders bottom of Group Three in the Patrons Cup Pool Games without wining a single game.

Crusaders looked confident at the onset of the game as Dip Donaldson's opener for two oints followed up by a classy three pointer from David Argo gave Crusaders the lead 5 - 2.

This was however, before Jon Michael Nation and Alistair Rae got into their stride. 

As with last week though, the Crusader defence looked lively with Derrick Pope and Alistair Spiers rebounding well from a flurry of wayward shots by Liverpool, and with more classic shooting by Dip Donaldson and some very fancy footwork from David Argo Crusaders kept in touch with their visitors. 

Sam Spare came off the bench and opened up his eight point account of the night with his first touch of the ball, giving the lead briefly back to Crusaders.  

Nevertheless despite some promising moves from the home side, they trailed 15 - 18 as the first quarter closed.

An effective early burst from Crusaders saw them rally in the second, and twice Sam Spare again put his side ahead.  

However once in front, Crusaders just didn't seem able to hold on to the lead, and soon and almost unnoticed the scoreboard showed Liverpool to be ten points to the good 27 - 37 with less than five minutes to the break. 

Larry Graves who has been invaluable to Crusaders this season producing consistent scores and averaging 21.4 points per game, again produced the goods when needed, scoring from either side of the three point mark to bring Crusaders score to 32 points. 

Inspired by Graves, Craig Robertson executed a lovely shot for 2 valuable points, having stolen the ball deep inside Crusaders own half.

This narrowed the gap to 5 before the coaches called for a time out.  

As play resumed Liverpool again forged ahead this time through Ken Chendo who despite being met with a wall of Crusader's big men managed 5 swift points.  

Larry Graves closed the half from the line having been fouled by Liverpool's Philip Rose.  

Crusaders would be looking to turn around a 6 point deficit when they came back after the interval 38 - 44. 

The third quarter however, would be best forgotten for Crusader supporters who found it frustrating to watch. What looked so promising for the home side in the opening seconds, turned into a nightmare as the period progressed.  

Poor shooting and a drop off in home side defence allowed Liverpool to run away with this third quarter stretching their lead to as much as 17 points. Coach Derrick Pope brought his visitors 7 - 18 run to a halt with less than two minutes to play, before shooting a long 3 to make the score only a little more respectable going into the final period. 52 - 66. 

After the disappointment of the third, the final quarter turned into one of the most exciting quarters of the season.  

Liverpool looked somewhat shell-shocked as Crusaders stepped up the pace at both ends.  

Alistair Spiers scored his first points of the game but by the end of the game would be in double figures, Larry Graves remained consistent in both his shooting and his defending and Derrick Pope continued to urge his team on with 8 more points in the quarter. 

In the first five minutes of the quarter Crusaders had made up 10 points narrowing the gap from 14 to 4 with the score board displaying 72 - 76.  

It was Alistair Rae who answered the challenge this time, from either side of the three point line, putting Liverpool back in the driving seat with less than three minutes left and the score at 74 – 81.  

Nevertheless Crusaders came back at the “Merseysiders” again, and despite going out of bounds, steals from David Argo and Larry Graves kept Liverpool away from the basket. 

With the scores at 78 - 83 and 44 seconds left, another time out was called, after which it was Crusaders that responded best as Larry Graves brought them to within a single basket of Liverpool. 

The home side still had fouls to spare to enable them to try and regain possession from the inbound ball.

David Argo was desperately unlucky when his third foul put Crusaders into the penalty, giving Chendo the possibility of scoring from the line. 

Dip Donaldson was quick with the defensive rebound when Chendo missed his second shot that would undoubtedly have sealed Liverpool's win with only 23 seconds left 80 – 84. 

The ball was swiftly brought down court and into the safe hands of Derrick Pope 82 - 84 and 11 seconds to the buzzer. 

With such little time left Liverpool only had to hold up the ball to take victory.

In order to regain possession quickly Crusaders were left with no other option than to commit quick fouls to stop the clock and to put pressure on Liverpool to make their free throws. 

Had Crusaders not had such a nightmare of a third quarter they would not have had to resort to this eventual fruitless tactic, as confident shooting from the line gave Liverpool the win 82 - 90. 

Crusader Scorers

Larry Graves                  24                     

Derrick Pope                  20                     

Alistair Spiers                 10                     

Dip Donaldson               9         

Sam Spare                    8

David Argo                     7         

Craig Robertson             2

Manny Sharland             2

Liverpool Scorers unavailable at this time.