[18 FEB 11] CRUSADER NEWS

Crawford wants strong finishes to games

By Adam Manning, Crusaders Press Officer.

Coventry Crusaders v Bristol Academy Flyers, Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre, Sat 19 February, tip-off 7:30pm

Coventry Crusaders first team has been thrown a lifeline as it was confirmed this Saturday’s home clash with National League Division One leaders Bristol Academy Flyers will go ahead. 

Up until Friday lunch time it looked as if the team’s 19-year legacy in the city was over, until head coach Roger Payne, assistant coach Marcus Garvey and Edwards Taxis owner Peter Sidhu paid the match fees to make sure this weekend’s game goes ahead.

Crusaders top-scorer Casey Crawford was the first player to hear the good news, and revealed to Crusaders TV that no team training this week would make their task of defeating the league-leaders even harder. 

“It hasn’t been ideal preparing for Bristol as we didn’t know if we were going to have a game” said the 25-year-old American. “There’s been a lot of anonymity surrounding the team because we didn’t know if we had the funding to support the team, much less play a basketball game.”

“We haven’t even had training so going into the game against the league’s top team is frustrating because we haven’t practised, we haven’t prepared, we haven’t really done   anything. So the game tomorrow will just be the guys showing up and going with it.”

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Last weekend saw a narrow 84-85 home defeat to Durham in which Coventry led for the majority until some self-inflicted sloppy passing proved their undoing, followed by a 79-69 away loss at London Leopards less than 24 hours later.

“The Durham game was very frustrating and a game we should have won. There’s been five or six games we should have won so we should be 8-4 and almost at the top of the league.”

 "The London game was even more frustrating because that was a team that we took to over time last time and are almost top of the league. We were up by twelve or fifteen at the end of the first quarter and then for whatever reason they handed it to us the second half and beat us by ten. It’s been frustrating and there’s been a lot of inner-turmoil within the team.”

On a better note ahead of Saturday’s game, Crusaders have a potent weapon in Crawford who has top-scored for Coventry in the last nine games, stretching all the way back to the away defeat to Durham last November.

He modestly said:“The coach looks for me to score and do well in that area. I guess it’s cool that I have done that but I’d rather have wins than all the scoring, but ultimately I’d like to have the scoring and the winning!”

 

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