Crusaders (48) 101

Solent Stars (51) 96

Home cooking was the order of the day as the Crusaders came out hitting shots from everywhere Saturday night at the Coventry Sports Centre. The Crusaders were able to pick up their second league win of the young season.  

The game was another vast scoring improvement over last weekend’s tough road loss to Worthing. The Crusaders are still on the right track with bigger steps to regaining the scoring punch they are now known for.  

In the first quarter Solent Starts showed they were prepared to be in a dog fight all night with the free scoring Crusaders.  After Sam Oatmans’ initial basket for Crusaders, he scored 14 of his 36 points in the first quarter and had 22 points by half time.

The second and third quarters were even more competitive as Crusaders and Stars continued to rack up the points, much to the delight of the large Crusader home crowd.  

Crusaders struggled to contain Solent’s American guard Antonio Bright who had 33 points and kept Stars in the lead and the Crusaders from controlling the game. At half time Solent had the lead 51 – 48. 

At the end of three, Crusaders trailed 70-71 but it was in the 4^th quarter that Crusaders again had a few minutes without scoring and essentially seemingly killed any chance they might have had of a comeback. 

Crusaders made a run with Neely hitting 2 threes and Oatman hitting on a great reverse lay-up going on 0-5 point run, and Crusaders took the lead to 101 – 96 by the time the final buzzer sounded. 

Player/Coach Dip Donaldson said -  

“Tonight the game belonged to Sam Oatman who controlled the team from the start. Sam shot amazing 76% for the game while scoring 36 points. I was most impressed with how Sam let the game come to him; he kept his teammates in the game by the way he controlled the team.”

Donaldson also added that Sam didn’t go out of his way to score 36 points, he just played well within the team system. Sam shot an impressive– 6/8 from the 3 point line and 7/9 for 2 points, 4/4 free throws along with 6 rebounds and some excellence assists to set up his teamates for baskets.

“That was Sam’s best scoring performance of the season so far.”

Donaldson was also pleased with the rest of the team’s shooting. Crusaders shot a season high 68% from 2 points and a red hot 46% from the 3 point line. Scott Neely had his second strong game in a row with 30 points.

When the "big three" - Neely, Oatman and Twierdzinski are scoring well it makes it difficult to defend the team, and it gives the rest of the team confidence.

Crusaders have been doing a lot of extra shooting in training and trying to get to a scoring level that they can count on, now they just need to keep an eye on their team defence and rebounding, both areas are cause for concern for Donaldson.  

“We have now fired on all cylinders for the first time all season and have found our form. The players just played loose tonight; and that was one of the reasons we shot the ball so well. We played the game with a nice artistic flow and it was a joy to watch as a fan.”

He was pleased with the scoring for the 1^st three quarters of team play. 

“I have to take my hat off to Solent Stars; they made us work to the last second of the match, they wouldn’t lay down, die, or quit at all. I was impressed how well they kept their cool here at the Coventry Sports Centre because our fans make so much noise to try and put off away team’s form, but they didn’t fold.

 

The Crusaders hard start to the season has paid off in getting back home to pick up the points. We took two steps forward on offence and that was a big plus for the Crusaders,” said Donaldson. 

Crusaders are at home again this coming Sunday vs. London Capitals in the National Cup quarter finals. Tip off will be slightly later for a Sunday game, at 3:30pm, and tickets are available on the door for £6 Adults, and £4 Concessions. 

Crusaders scorers: Owen 2, Solvason 7, Hall 8, Twierdzinski 8, Donaldson 10, Neely 30, Oatman 36.