[08 DEC 07] CRUSADER NEWS                                                       

Coventry Crusaders (45) 92 Derby Trailblazers (44) 90

After a hard 40-minute battle against the Trailblazers, Crusaders finally knocked down their first league game – the perfect way to go into their long Christmas break. 

Crusaders were unable to play at their normal venue at the Coventry Sports Centre who had a long-standing booking prior to Crusaders fixtures coming out.   

Fortunately North Solihull Sports Centre came through with the offer of their facility, so the team and loyal supporters travelled just a little farther to get to the game this weekend.  Crusaders will be playing “at home” in solihull one other time on Feb. 24^th against Worthing Thunder. 

It was unfortunate that this particular game was not played in front of the normal crowd in Coventry because it is just the type of game that gets supporters coming back for more. 

Crusaders fell behind quite quickly in the first quarter, allowing Derby’s Simon Spencer to do just about anything he wanted, and giving Simon Allaway total freedom from the three point line to hit three treys. 

It wasn’t long before Crusaders pulled themselves together, however, and by the end of the first quarter all was even 24-24 with all the hallmarks of a nail-biter in evidence. 

The second quarter was a cat and mouse affair, with Crusaders leading most of the way, yet unable to shake the Trailblazers off their tail. Spencer continued to give Coventry trouble scoring 7 more points to bring his half time total to16. 

Ryan Luethy was looking good for Crusaders, however and he returned the favour with 7 of his own points. At half time the game was still too close to call, with Crusaders just hanging on to a 45-44 point lead. 

In the third period the Crusaders continued to lead, going ahead by as much as 8 points at one time.  Derby still kept the Coventry side in sight with some great play by Joe Barber who suddenly seemed to come to life with 12 points from him alone. 

Luethy was also showing great form, as he contributed 14 of his 30 points in that quarter to keep Crusaders looking strong and in control. It was their strongest quarter, scoring 28 points to Derby’s 25 giving the home side a four-point lead going into the last quarter, 73-69. 

The final ten minutes were terribly, achingly, exciting to watch, as the Crusaders maintained their lead, only to have Derby catch up to within one point with just under two minutes left in the game.

Coventry was in the lead most of the time, but when it came down to under a minute and Derby scored bringing the score to 90 all, the tension became almost unbearable. 

Derby had opportunity to score again but wasn’t able to, giving Crusaders the win on a platter, if only they could use up the last 24 seconds and score in the process.   

With time on his side, Ed Baynes Clarke made a great shot, which rimmed out, was able to get his own rebound and set up for another shot with the same result, before Keith Sudler grabbed the rebound and shot inside the arc for the game winning shot 92-90. 

Derby did try an almost full-court shot at the basket as the dying two seconds were played, but it went amiss, giving Coventry their 1^st win since the same two teams played each other in a National Trophy game in early October. 

It was the kind of game when it is extremely hard on the team that ends up short, because the entire game was so close, and definitely too close to predict, but Crusaders were very happy to be snatching this particular victory which was all the sweeter because it has been so very elusive. 

Crusaders scorers:  Luethy 30, Sudler 24, Clarke 11, Spare 8, Baynes Clarke 7, Donaldson 6, Hall 2, Taylor 2 

Trailblazers Top scorers: Barber 26, Spencer 20, Allaway 18, Sherlock 17, McGaffin 4, Stones 2, Richardson 2, Baker 1