[08 DEC 09] CRUSADER NEWS

 London Mets Match Preview

Coventry Crusaders vs. London Mets

Where: Coventry Sports Centre , Fairfax Street, Coventry, CV1 5RY.

When: Saturday 12^th December 2009

Tip Off: 7:30pm

Competition: EBL Division One

By Adam Manning

The Coventry Crusaders will be looking to build upon last Saturday’s first win of the season when they take on mid table newcomers London Mets at the Sports Centre this Saturday evening.

Coventry won in style last weekend, playing out a variety of clinical offensive sets, being able to capitalise from their own defensive rebounds or biding their time patiently to penetrate a physical Sheffield Arrows defence; and Crusaders’ Kane Hudson described just how significant the win was for the side.

“I think that’s just going to start pushing us now” said Hudson, who executed four 3 point shots to contribute to his highest scoring tally of 14 for this season, with two of the big hit shots coming at a crucial point in the second quarter where Coventry were able to open up a fateful 11 point lead.

“.We’ve got that winning mentality now and we were saying that the first win was needed before Christmas, the same as last year, and hopefully that’ll start pushing us” he continued.

As for what he felt the team did differently from other games, Hudson believes optimising the use of the basketball was key, in what was a high scoring game which saw Crusaders claim their first 100 point scalp at the Sports Centre since March.

“We moved the ball well, really well today. We got what we wanted off shots and our offences were run well and basically that was what won us the game”.

Meanwhile, Head Coach Scott Neely admitted that although he didn’t know much about Saturday’s opponents London Mets, who were last year’s Division Two runners up, he would much rather focus on his own team.

He said: “I don’t know much about them seeing as they’ve just come up from the second division, so I’m going to take a look at them this week and see who they’ve got”.

“So in that respect it’s a blank page, but I think it’s more that I’ll be focusing on us and trying to see us before, and it’s not something like  “oh we’ve got the win” and you relax a bit, it’s about pushing us forward. We have two home matches coming up, so hopefully we’ll get the confidence going into next week”.

With Coventry being presented with a golden opportunity to claim four points from two up and coming home games before a two week Christmas break, Neely disagreed with the notion of the break hindering his side’s improving performances.

“No” he said convincingly.  “I mean you could look at it in one sense yes and one sense no, but we’ve got to make sure that we get the two wins right before Christmas”.

Neely also revealed that the break will enable him to reflect and look into securing another face to the squad before January 31^st in time for the much anticipated play off push, adding:

“I’m still hopeful, and it’s not definitely going to happen, but I’m hopeful that I’m going to be able to add someone to the team, but we’ll have to see on that one, but right now with the guys that we have we know we can win against anybody, but we can also, if we don’t play well, lose to anybody”.

The opponents:

National Trophy quarter finalists London Mets find themselves in a respectable 7^th place league position ahead of the tie with Crusaders, winning three and losing four. They come into the game off the back of a 81-48 mauling at third placed Derby Trailblazers last Saturday. Mets have lost to all of the teams above them that they’ve played, but have more importantly beaten teams that are in and around them to leave them level on six points with rivals London Leopards, who they did the trophy double over at the start of the season.

London has an equal league record on the road, losing and winning two apiece, and a win for them could see a jump of three places up to fourth before they travel to Reading Rockets for their final National Trophy group stage game. The tie at Reading will determine who Mets will play in the National Trophy on January 10^th, with either an away tie at Bristol Academy Flyers if they fail to hold onto top spot in Pool Four, or a home court versus Taunton Tigers if they withstand Rockets.

Mets possess the services of 6’6 forward Mansour Mybe, who is the EBL’s fifth highest  rebounder, averaging 9.75 per game.

What the stats show:

From the seven league games played by both sides so far this season, Mets have a better offensive record by scoring nine more points on average than the home side, while Coventry concede 2 points less than Mets on average per game..

Crusaders team to face London Mets this Saturday: 4 Joe Francombe (guard);

5 John Olinger (c) (guard); 6 Tim Donaldson (point 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).

                         

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