Match Report by James Bourne:
COVENTRY Crusaders played out a 64-96 loss against
title challengers Leeds Carnegie in their final match at the Sports
Centre this season, but head coach Scott Neely said that there were
still positives with three games of the regular season remaining.
Neely said: “I liked the way our guys stuck with it in
the first quarter. The second quarter, there were also some runs but,
when Leeds really pushed up and they carried on working their stuff,
knocked down a few threes in that second quarter, for us it was tough to
come back from.
“We couldn’t really get anything going in the third
and fourth, Matt [Smith] got into foul trouble which was hard for us
because he was one of our key guys offensively tonight, but full credit
to Leeds, they’ve got a tough squad this year.”
The visitors were on the back of a morale-boosting
83-70 win over fellow challengers Derby Trailblazers and had good reason
to expect a comfortable win in Coventry, with Crusaders skipper John
Olinger unavailable for selection.
The reverse fixture ended in a 101-72 win for Leeds
back in January, with league top scorer Adrian Fenyn hitting 40 for
Carnegie.
Fenyn top scored in this game with 25 and was a menace
on offensive boards all night, but Coventry did well to keep the
visitors at bay for the first quarter.
Leeds opened up a gap after a Stephen Danso lay-up and
a deuce from Joe Francombe gave Crusaders an early 4-2 advantage. The
visitors took advantage of individual mistakes as well as slick movement
around the key to stride ahead 8-17 after six minutes, including two
turnover scores.
Crusaders rallied, with a superb interception score
from Simon Payne and a three from Matt Smith to make it 13-17, only for
Fenyn to show his class and find the basket in the next attack despite
three home defenders around him with hands up.
Both sides traded scores for the rest of the quarter,
the highlight for home fans being two swift scores from Ryann Samuel, to
leave the scores at 17-24.
Crusaders often got chances in and around the
two-point zone to shoot, but they continued to miss shots, letting the
visitors off the hook on many occasions.
Carnegie capitalised by putting up 13 unanswered
points towards the end of the second quarter, going from 27-38 to 27-51
at half time. Mike Medved top scored for Leeds in the second, hitting
six points including a 100% record from free throws.
The third quarter continued the theme of the second
with Coventry battling hard in the face of adversity.
Crusaders kept the scoreboard ticking over thanks to
Dave Edden and Ryann Samuel among others, but Leeds continued to press
and a timeout called by coach Neely saw the scores at 34-69 with four
minutes of the third left.
After an Adrian Fenyn score, Crusaders hit three
baskets in succession with the best coming from Ben Timms, who fought
hard in defence all evening. Edden used his strength well to claim a
rare attacking rebound late on, but the scores stood at 45-76 going into
the final ten.
The final ten minutes proved to be of low intensity,
with Carnegie doing enough early on to secure a comfortable win. Istvan
Herczeg impressed for the visitors with his long game, with all 12
points from him coming from outside the arc.
Head coach Scott Neely will be pleased with the
different scorers in his team, with Dave Edden, Matt Smith, Stephen
Danso and Ryann Samuel all hitting double figures in the game.
The best score of the night came from Samuel, who beat
three men to run the length of the court, laying up beautifully to make
the score 55-80 in a good opening passage for the team.
The visitors’ Scott Richards top scored with eight
points in the quarter, with Stephen Danso hitting six for the Crusaders
as the match petered out to a 64-96 result.
Quarter Scores: 17-24, 10-27, 18-25,
19-20.
Crusaders top scorers: Ryann Samuels
14, Stephen Danso 14, Matt Smith 13.
Carnegie
top scorers: Fenyn 24,
Brown 15, Herczeg 12.
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