Coventry Crusaders (37) 78

West Herts Warriors (41) 91

It's ALL Over!

Crusaders put up a good fight with their depleted team on Saturday in front of a packed house at the Coventry Sports Centre, but it was not enough to get the magic win they needed to head into the play offs. 

The first quarter looked good for the home side, as they kept and set pace for the Warriors. The two sides traded baskets most of the way through the quarter with Scott Neely and Sam Oatman both putting in some good scores to lead the way 23-21 after 10 minutes. 

The second quarter began with a technical foul being called quite early on the Warriors coach, Tony Harrison, and again, the teams staying close to each other, although Warriors had the edge most of the period.

Stanley Burrison and Pierre Henry-Fontaine shared top scores by half time with 12 apiece, although a at least two baskets of Henry-Fontaine’s were some good looking dunks. 

At half time there was nothing between the two sides and the outcome would have been difficult to accurately predict, with a 37-41 lead by Warriors going into the interval. 

The third period of play was the turning point of the game as both Malik Omar and Oatman, both starters for Crusaders, fouled out with lots of time left. 

Warriors took advantage of the Crusaders now 6 man roster, and began to pull ahead little by little. Again, it was Burrison and Henry-Fontaine who both were cranking the points up, and by the end of the quarter Warriors led 57-70. 

The fourth started with a Crusader comeback.  The packed crowd was very vocal in support of the home team, and they were screaming their encouragement to the team, who little by little clawed back to within two points. 

Warriors were having none of it, however, and fully capitalised on a couple of Crusaders missed shots and turnovers, to regain their ten point comfort margin, running out to win 78-91. 

Crusaders Coach Donaldson had this to say,

 “We struggled to make easy shots, made poor decisions, and got into early foul trouble. Warriors were the smarter team on the night and they made us pay for the mistakes we made. 

 

It was great to see such a big crowd supporting our last game of the season.   

 

I was also pleased that Serge Ndoumbe and Craig Hopkins both came in and did well for us off the bench.  We would have been really stuck if it hadn’t been for them, especially after Malik and Sam fouled out, and they really did help us out.”