[12 OCT 09] CRUSADER NEWS

 Crusaders vs. Tigers

Match Reaction

By Adam Manning

Although luck wasn’t on the Crusaders’ side towards the end of regulation and overtime on Saturday night, Taunton Tigers head coach Tom Kambouris praised Coventry’s endeavour to take the game to an undefeated Taunton side.

The game ended up in an 89-90 overtime victory to Tigers after an unfortunate slip by overtime hero and Captain John Olinger allowed Joe Andrews to snatch the deciding two pointer with less than 20 seconds to go, leaving Kambouris relieved and keen to praise the opposition.

He said after the game: “You’ve got to give credit to Coventry. They really brought a lot of intensity and execution and I was very impressed by the amount of fight they had. It was quite impressive. We just somehow hung on, but a lot of respect to Coventry for the way they brought it".

“On the other side of the coin, we had a couple of guys who refused to lose. Paul Yabsley effectively strapped the team to his back and said “we’re not going to lose today guys”.

Asked about whether he expected such a backlash from the Crusaders, the Tigers’ coach admitted that he didn’t see such a performance coming.

“I didn’t, I really didn’t. I told Scott after the game that whatever he did during the week to get them up was commendable. They really came and they really believed after losing three in a row, I just really didn’t think that they would come that hard and they did. So it was a very competitive and fun game”.

He added: “I think they’ll get wins if they perform like that. As a coach that’s what you aspire to do and compete and compete and compete and they did. So it’ll be exciting to have them come back to our place during the regular season. It’s turning into a little bit of a rivalry now, so we’re excited to tee it up again”.

Having surrendered the lead in both regulation time and over time, Crusaders boss Scott Neely believes some of his youngsters will benefit from the experience.

“Towards the end, we had three 19-year-olds out on the court, and this is the English First Division, so sometimes they haven’t been in those situations”.

Crusaders’ next match is away to Bristol Academy Flyers on Saturday 24^th October in their final National Trophy Pool Three game, where nothing less than a win will be enough for the Crusaders to hold onto any slim chances of progressing to the quarter finals.

 

Crusaders next home match is on the 31st October when they face Bristol Academy Flyers, tip-off is 7.30pm at the Coventry Sports Centre.

  Main Menu | News | Tigers Match Reaction  12 OCT 2009