[27 NOV 09] CRUSADER NEWS

 Manchester Match Preview

Manchester Magic vs. Coventry Crusaders

Where: Amaechi Basketball Centre, Wilbraham Road, Whalley Range, M16 8GW  

Telephone: 0161-881-0090

When: Saturday 28^th November 2009

Tip Off: 7:30pm

Competition: EBL Division One

By Adam Manning

Coventry Crusaders boss Scott Neely is looking for his side to “take up the opportunity” to get their first win of the season at the tenth attempt tomorrow evening when they travel to the only remaining unbeaten side this season ,Manchester Magic.

Crusaders are desperate to record their first win in what has been one of the worst starts to a season for the club, with only 17 points difference separating themselves from bottom club Tees Valley Mohawks.

“I would say Manchester right now looks to be the top team in the league” said Neely.

He continued: “It’s going to be a challenge for us, and hopefully we’ll go out and take up the opportunity this week to prepare for the challenge and not just think ‘we’ll just show up on Saturday and see what happens’”.

And Coventry will come up against a lethal guard duo with an offensive eye for the basket,  5’8 Stefan Gill and 6’2 Brandon Kimbrough, who are both top scorer and key assist respectively.

And despite there not being much height difference between the two sides, something captain John Olinger alluded to earlier on in the season, Neely believes Manchester possess a defence that can punish teams at both ends of the court.

“They’re going to pose a lot of challenges for us, because they have some inside guys who are big and have developed through the programme, but they’ve also got some really tough guards. They’ve got Kim Rowe, an American guard who was with them last year – he’s been really shooting well, and also Stefan Gill, who’s the league’s leading three-point shooter right now”.

Crusaders captain John Olinger was in a thoughtful but quiet mood following the 78-54 defeat against Reading last week, and said that the side needed to take better advantage of the 50/50 balls around both baskets if they’re to stand any chance of winning this weekend.

“We’ve got to rebound, and then that’ll take care of a lot of the other stuff” said Crusaders’ top scorer.

“Rebounding’s got to be an issue; if we don’t rebound then it’s going to be an uphill battle for us”.

Team News: Tim Donaldson misses out again through injury, but is expected to return to training next week. There are no fresh injury worries for Scott Neely.

Recent Form: Crusaders have the league to focus on for the remainder of the season, having lost all of their games to date. Whereas Manchester paint a completely different picture, having won all of their ten competitive games, leaving them two points clear at the top of the league, a Quarter Final National Cup tie away at Durham on Sunday, and another Quarter Final berth in the National Trophy. Magic’s most recent game saw them scrape through 69-68 with less than 90 seconds left against another unbeaten side that Crusaders had played this season, Derby Trailblazers.

Head to Head: Last season saw Manchester Magic claim two comfortable victories over Crusaders. The last time the sides met was at the Sports Centre in March where Magic came away with a 93 -65 win to inflict Coventry’s second loss in seven matches. The meeting earlier on in that season was a similar scenario, with Magic triumphing 80-54. The last time Coventry beat Manchster was on the 12^th January 2006 when now Head Coach Scott Neely was involved in a 107-82 score line that saw 17 successful three point throws from Crusaders to be the first team to end Manchester’s magic run half way through the season. The teams have met at least eleven times in the past, with Coventry winning just one to Manchester’s ten.

Manchester Magic – who are they:

The club was formed in 1997 by couple Joe and Maggie Forber and Graham Williams, where it started out with 2 boy cadet teams. Since then the club has evolved to have ten other teams alongside the seniors: an EBL Division Three second team; boy youth teams ranging from under 18s down to under 13s, as well as having four female teams known as the Mystics.

The club’s youth dedication and high standard is reflected in the silverware on show. In nine years the youth teams share 44 titles between them. In 2007 the senior side won its first piece of silverware, claiming the National Cup in the 2006/2007 season before successfully defending it the following year when they also won the league and play offs for the first time.

The club is owned by former NBA English basketball player John Amaechi, who was the first ever English basketball player to play in the NBA for Cleveland Cavaliers in 1995. The 6’10 centre and power forward funded £250,000 for the creation of their new 1,000 seater home venue in June 2002, known as the Amaechi Basketball Centre.

Danger Men: The stats show that guards Stefan Gill and Brandon Kimbrough are the likeliest offensive threat to Crusaders this Saturday. Gill is the league’s top scorer, averaging 26.86 per game, throwing 65.22% of his 2 point shots, and 62.5% of three point attempts. His counterpart Kimbrough complements him well by second best assist, making an average of 4.7 assists per game and averaging 22 per game in the process.

Crusaders have an offensive threat of their own, with guards John Olinger and Dan Taylor appearing the most clinical with their chances. Olinger is averaging 22.3 points per game with 3 assists, whilst Taylor has recently finished has a 60% success rate from this two point attempts. Dave Edden will also be looking to continue his rich vein of scoring from the fourth quarter against Reading, which saw him make 12 out of his 19 points in the final ten minutes.

Crusaders team to face Manchester: 4 Joe Francombe (guard);

5 John Olinger (c) (guard); 8 Will Bastin (guard); 9 Dan Taylor (guard/forward);

10 Simon Payne (guard/forward); 11 Stephen Danso (guard); 12 Dave Edden (forward);

13 Ryann Samuel (forward); 14 Kane Hudson (guard); 15 Ben Timms (centre/forward).

                         

  Main Menu | News | Reading Match Preview   27 NOV 2009