Cadets Continue To Command

 West Herts. Warriors 37 Coventry Crusaders 85 

Taking up where they left off at the end of 2004 Coventry Crusader Cadets looked totally dominant in their most recent encounter.  

Making their furthest journey in this seasons campaign Cadets travelled to St Albans to take on third placed West Herts. Warriors. 

It was going to be interesting to see how the youngsters coped with the journey and being without influential Captain Bryson Pope. 

Nevertheless an excellent all round team performance saw Crusaders produce one of their best wins of the season. 

Crusaders had 8 points on the board before the home side made any break through and were clear by 10 points at the end of the opening period. 6 – 16. 

Checking into the game in the closing stages of the first period was Matt Wood, but it was during the opening minutes of the second that he made his impact on the game.

Scoring 19 second quarter points including five from five three pointers.

With solid shooting from Matt and the introduction of some new and well-organized defensive plays, the game was effectively over by half time when the scores stood at 41 – 16. 

The second half was slow to get underway, despite Crusaders pressure forcing errors from their hosts, Crusaders failed to take full advantage with failed shots and some easy unprompted turnovers.

A time out allowed Crusaders to regain focus and composure and whilst Warriors became frustrated with each other, the Crusader points continued to mount.

Some fine shooting from Andy Brookes and Sid Donaldson took Crusaders lead to 30 points, and when Kane Hudson, Crusaders very promising and effective point guard blocked Warriors inbound ball it fell to Brookes who again made the most of his chances. 

Showing strength and power under the basket Crusaders demonstrated why they are still unbeaten in the league this season.

Ricardo Gordon closed the third quarter account for Crusaders to move himself on to 8 points so far and give his team a 27 – 59 lead into the final period. 

Despite Warriors getting the opening points on the board, they were restricted to just scoring 10 in this the final quarter as with no intention of reducing the pressure Crusaders were as intensive with their performance in the final period as in the first. 

Ricardo Gordon picked up two from the line having been fouled on his way to the basket, kick starting a flow of Crusader points including a further 8 from Rob Layfield, and 2  Louis De Silva. 

Able to play his bench extensively Coach Alvin Scott took full advantage by giving all his players valuable court time, all of which used them wisely and despite not getting on the score sheet, Neil Collins, Tim Donaldson and James Hobday all made valuable contributions to the all-round performance on the day.

The game closed in fine stile as Matt Wood hit his sixth from six three point attempt, this time from way beyond the arc, giving Crusaders a well deserved and excellently manoeuvred victory 37 – 85.

Crusader Scorers 

Matt Woods 22, Andy Brookes 15, Sid Donaldson 14, Ricardo Gordon 14, Rob Layfield 14, Kane Hudson 4, Louis De Silva 2. 

Programme for Saturday 22^nd January Coventry Sports Centre

 5 pm        Crusader Juniors        vs.    Ilkeston Outlaws.

7:30pm  Crusader Senior Men  vs.     Solent Stars.