Match Report by James Bourne.
Crusaders couldn’t build upon their impressive victory
over the Sheffield Arrows last time out as they crashed to an 80-102
defeat against the London Mets at the Sports Centre.
It was the second quarter which proved to be the
Crusaders’ undoing as, in an expansive, fast-paced game, the visitors
notched up 29 points compared to Coventry’s 17 to take a lead which they
never looked like relinquishing.
Jon Olinger was the star of the show for the home side
despite the disappointing performance, hitting 32 points in what was one
of his better games of the season.
The Mets had suffered a heavy defeat at in-form Derby
the week before to give Crusaders hope of a second successive win, but
on this display, the newly-promoted university outfit looked right at
home amongst the big boys of English basketball.
Crusaders were at a disadvantage with only eight fit
players – Dan Taylor and Tim Donaldson were both missing. However, head
coach Scott Neely was disappointed at the amount of mistakes his
under-strength side made.
Neely said after the game: “I’m very disappointed that
we had 14 turnovers at half time.
“Our aim is to have 12 or less in the whole match, so
that tells a huge story right there because they got ten more shots from
the two-point line in the first half than we got.
“So they get more shots, they’re going to have more
points.”
The first quarter started out evenly with the two most
prolific players on the court being the Crusaders’ Jon Olinger, who hit
10 points with two exquisite three-point shots, and the Mets’ Arturo
Noha, who netted 11 points, including hitting four free throws from six.
After Stephen Danso hit a good long range effort to
give the Crusaders a 13-8 lead, their discipline cost them as Mets went
on an eight point run, including free throws from Jeffery Danchie, Wayne
Yebuah and player-coach Solomon Ayinla.
It could have been more but for a fine defensive play
from Coventry’s Simon Payne, leaping to grab the rebound from Ayinla’s
shot following a misplaced pass from Danso.
Olinger’s long shooting kept the Crusaders in it as
the quarter came to a close, but Noha came into his own to inch the Mets
in front, hitting a three-pointer from the right as well as hitting two
free throws to give the visitors a 20-23 advantage.
A timeout with eight minutes of the second quarter
proved pivotal for the Mets as they went on another eight point run to
extend the score from 26-30 to 26-38. The best score from this was a
cool finish from danger man Mansour Mbye following good work from Ayinla.
The Crusaders were struggling with the athleticism of
the Mets on the rebound; however they were compounding the issue with
difficulties on their own attacks. Following Dave Edden’s missed free
throw at 28-38; there was nobody there to pounce on the shot, making it
all too easy for Mbye to clear.
However Edden made up for earlier, hitting six points
in quick succession to make it 34-40. The first three came after being
fouled netting a far right shot, and the second came after he reacted
first to an attacking rebound, but was fouled as he scored.
That was one of the few highlights in this quarter for
the Crusaders however, as the Mets increased the tempo to hold a 37-52
lead by half time.
The Crusaders started the second half with more
vigour. Olinger and Danso combined well to notch one of the better moves
of the opening few minutes. Then in the next attack, Will Bastin played
a lovely reverse ball for Olinger to lay up to make it 41-55.
Olinger continued to impress for the Crusaders, making
one of the plays of the match when, after cutting in from the left, he
hit a great three point shot when the Mets defenders were expecting the
pass. Stephen Danso also played well, hitting nine points in the quarter
and being impressive in defence as well as attack.
But whilst the Crusaders were making great plays at
one end, they couldn’t stop leaking soft scores at the other. Solomon
Ayinla was the main beneficiary, notching two easy scores under the hoop
in quick succession to help give the Mets a daunting 55-73 lead.
The Crusaders’ Kane Hudson went
down awkwardly with an ankle injury at the end of the third quarter,
putting him out of action for the rest of the game. However, his injury
isn’t thought to be serious and he should be in contention for the
Crusaders’ next tie against the London Leopards on the 19th
December.
The fourth quarter saw the Mets slow down the play in
order to secure the win, which they did with some slick passing around
the two point zone. Their rebounding was still impressive, with Ayinla
and rebound machine Mbye – who had hit 9.75 boards per game previous to
this – benefitting.
Crusaders were still making good scores, with Will
Bastin and Jon Olinger both making big three-point shots, but it was to
little avail in the context of the match. The visitors hit the century
mark – for the first time this season – when Joshua Oladimeji threw a
fine three pointer after the home defence backed off to seal an 80-102
victory.
Quarter Scores: 20-23, 17-29, 22-23,
21-27.
Crusaders top scorers: John Olinger
32,
Stephen Danso 20, Dave Edden 10.
Mets top scorers:
Ayinla 25, Mbye 17, Noha 16.
Crusaders next home match is on the 19th December when they face
London Leopards, tip-off is 7.30pm at the
Coventry Sports Centre.
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