Coventry Crusaders had a difficult week this week, as throughout the week four of their main players became unavailable for this weekend’s tough double header schedule. 

Early in the week Rick Solvason had to step down from playing due to work and personal reasons.  Crusaders enjoyed having the experience of Solvason at hand briefly this season, and will miss his contribution. 

Wes Hall, similarly, has work commitments over the next few weeks, but can hopefully rejoin the team sometime in February. 

Martin Twierdzinski received an injury while playing in a local league game, which will keep him sidelined for at least two weeks, and Sam Oatman was on his way back to the USA because of a family bereavement. 

So it was with a rather depleted side that the Crusaders had to face two tough league fixtures. 

The West Herts Warriors were out to get them from the start, and held the lead from the very beginning of the game. Henry-Fontaine’s three 3-pointers gave him his start to being top scorer of the game with 30 points. In the first quarter West Herts had jumped out to a 14-26 lead. 

Crusaders held their own in the second quarter, with youngster Roy Owen and Crusaders rebounding king, Sam Spare both contributing well.  But the team wasn’t able to recover from that early 12 point deficit, and went out at half time 33-44 down. 

In the third quarter Henry-Fontaine went on another scoring spree, well supported by three point scorer Larmont Sharp and Stanley Burrison, and increased their lead to 23 points. 

From there on Warriors continued to pound the Crusaders who were simply under-manned and did not have enough scoring power on the night.

There was a chink of light for Crusaders, however, as Owen who has been working hard all season, did a great job for them with 18 points - his highest scoring game for Crusaders.

Crusaders scorers: Pleming 3, Schauly 4, Donaldson 10, Spare 11, Owen 18, Neely 20.