[15 DEC 09] CRUSADER NEWS

 London Leopards Match Preview

Coventry Crusaders vs. London Leopards – sponsored by:

 

  

 

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

When: Saturday 19^th December 2009

Tip Off: 7:30pm

Competition: EBL Division One

By Adam Manning

Coventry Crusaders will be looking to rekindle a winning mentality and take it into the Christmas break as they round off 2009 with a home court tie against London Leopards this Saturday evening.

Coventry face a side that were beaten 69-77 in the National Cup semi final by league leader Manchester Magic last Sunday, but despite not playing a league game since December 5^th, have won their last two games to leave them four points and one league place above Crusaders in ninth spot.

“It’s going to be tough” said head coach Scott Nelly looking ahead to the match, which provides Crusaders with the opportunity to close the gap on the mid table pack to two points.

“they’ve got a seven footer, they’ve also got a guy six nine that’s Italian I believe, so it’s going to be tough and that’s why I say blocking them out outside the three second area is going to be crucial otherwise it’s going to be really difficult to get the rebound”.

Head coach Scott Neely wants to see more alertness and quicker thinking from his side as another London side look to spoil the Christmas festivities at the Coventry Sports Centre.

Crusaders found themselves victim to 14 rebounds at half time in their last game against London Mets, and that’s something that Neely is looking to improve on this weekend by having his players thinking ahead of the game to compensate for his sides height disadvantage.

“Because we’re a small team, we need to find the people that we’re going to block out early, which means before they get inside the three second area, we need to find them to actually try and block them out and then go get the ball.

“A lot of times we just looked when the shot goes up and then they’re right there, and then it’s a matter of who’s stronger, who’s taller, who can jump higher, and right now that’s not us.”

London lad Stephen Danso, who has 179 points to his name at an average of 17.9 per game, believes this weekend’s opponents will pose harder opposition than their rivals London Mets, and even likened them to Manchester Magic in the way that they play.

“I wouldn’t say they’re as athletic” he said when comparing Leopards with last week’s opponents London Mets.

“I think they’ll be a bit more structured but I don’t think they’ll push it as much as this team. I think they’ll run more plays and get it inside to the big man, they’ll set more solid screens and be similar to Manchester Magic”.

When asked what proved the downfall for Crusaders last weekend, Danso replied:

“Rebounding. They are a bigger team but we didn’t attempt to block out sometimes, or put a body on a man. We weren’t aggressive enough, we had so many times where we set up people from plays and we missed so many lay offs including myself, so we were just not aggressive enough”.

“I think people got a bit comfortable from winning last week. We started off well and then went into out comfort zone and never pushed them”.

Danso played down his recent offensive performances for Crusaders, being the only one keeping on top scorer John Olinger’s heels as the first half of the season draws to a close, and preferred to concentrate on improving his team mates’ contribution.

“I can perform when I want to, but I have to try and get my team mates involved as well. If I’m doing all of the scoring and one of my team mates hasn’t had a shot in five minutes, then he’s going to be cold, so it’s about finding that balance. So it’s a very difficult thing to do”.

Dan Taylor and Ben Timms are expected to boost the Crusaders squad for this weekend’s game, after both being unavailable last week, whilst Tim Donaldson is still sidelined due to injury.

Saturday’s opponents:

London Leopards possess 7’0 centre Leigh Greenan, who has scored 113 league points this season. They won their first away league game at the fourth attempt down at Bristol two weeks ago, and have bounced back in the past two games to eradicate the disappointment of losing bragging rights to London Mets after losing three of their four meetings to them this season. Leopards’ fate in the National Trophy is still undecided, relying ironically on Mets to beat Reading in the final Pool Four encounter this Saturday to ensure second spot for a quarter final tie at Bristol on January 10th.

Coventry Crusaders to face Leopards: 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).

London Leopards: 4 Johnny Wright (guard); 5 Marlan Henry (guard); 6 Carl Latham-Henry (guard); 7 Ronnie Baker (guard); 8 Ignazio De Ferrari (forward/centre); 9 Chris Michaelides (guard); 10 Sam Richardson (forward); 11 Francesco Rinaldi (forward); 14 Leigh Greenan (centre).

 

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