The Medway Park Crusaders will face a home and away double header this weekend. On Saturday, Medway Park welcome the London Leopards in a key National Trophy match before travelling to face Newham in the 2nd round of the National Cup.

Saturday’s match-up will be crucial for Medway Park as they are currently 0-2 in the Trophy. They must finish in the top 4 of their group of 6 to advance to the quarterfinals. To do this they will likely need to win at least 2 of their remaining 3 games.

Leopards come into the game 1-1 in the Trophy after a tough overtime loss to Derby on the weekend. This will be the second time the teams meet this season, having squared off in the Crusaders pre-season tournament. Medway Park were victorious on that occasion but London have since added American guard Vernon Teel.

Leopards will be led by their 2 Americans, Teel and last season’s star player Ousman Krubally. Teel announced his arrival in England with a 38 point, 10 rebound effort against Derby, while Krubally tallied 36 with an astonishing 20 rebounds. Surrounding the imports will be a large contingent of exciting young players produced through Barking Abbey’s academy.

Crusaders Head Coach James Vear is aware of the threat Leopards bring, “Leopards are one of the teams I expect to be close to the top come the end of the season. They have one of the best players in the league in Krubally who can do a bit of everything and reminds me a lot of Adrian (Fenyn). Coach Mihevc seems to be doing a great job bringing through the younger players as well, with some of them still eligible to play U18 & U16. It’s great to see these young English players given a chance to compete at this level which can only be good for their development.”

He added, “It’s also nice to see Rikki Broadmore back as he is a previous Crusader player and now an assistant coach with Leopards.”

On Sunday, Crusaders will travel to Newham to face the Newham NASSA Neptunes. NASSA are one of the highest regarded junior clubs in London and nationally. The senior team is rapidly developing with exciting young players and will pose a real challenge for Crusaders, especially as they will only be allowed to play 1 of their import players. Cup rules mean that any EBL1 team playing an opponent from a lower division is only permitted to play 1 import player.

Coach Vear knows that NASSA are more than capable of pulling off the upset, “NASSA I think have the best EBL3 line-up in the country. They have a lot of experience and some players who have played at the highest level in this country. One of those players is ex-Crusader Damian Lyons who played for the Crusaders for a number of years. It will be strange to play against him after coaching him for a number of years. We know how good he is and what he brings to any team he plays for. We will have to play very well if we want to progress to the next round.”

Overall despite some early season set backs, Vear remains very positive, “We have changed a few things in practice and the team have responded very well to the changes. Defensively we need to be a lot better and make sure we play defense as a team. We also need to make sure we are focused for the full 40 minutes, in this league if you lose your concentration even for a couple of minutes teams will capitalise on that.

The team chemistry is still very good and I can feel us getting better every time we practice. Having some of the guys return from last years team including Sam Betts and JP Dimandja has improved practice as they know what I expect and its two more players pushing for minutes.”

The Medway Park Crusaders fell to 0-2 in the National Trophy after losing 74-67 against the Bradford Dragons.

The Crusaders had the early advantage as Bradford struggled to score. Crusaders took an early 14-7 lead and were still leading 17-11 after the first.

The second quarter was a very different story, as Bradford went on an early 12-3 run behind a series of aggressive moves by Richard Sulcs. The teams then began to trade baskets with Luke Baker and Gareth Laws scoring from mid range for Crusaders while Chris McGrew was scoring from the post for Bradford. Another mini-run by the Dragons gave them a 38-31 lead at the half.

After Bradford scored the first basket of the half, Crusaders usual defensive intensity returned. They forced Bradford into a series of turnovers and tough shots and Adrian Fenyn began to take over offensively. A 13-4 run resulted in Crusaders retaking the lead 44-42. Once again Sulcs asserted himself and Bradford clawed their way back to a 53-50 lead entering the final quarter.

In the 4th Crusaders continued to rely heavily on Fenyn on offence, while Sulcs and McGrew continued to cause problems for them defensively. After Crusaders tied the game at 57, Bradford took control moving out to an 8 point lead that Crusaders never were able to close.

Fenyn led Medway park with 28, no one else was in double figures. Sulcs had 23 for Bradford with McGrew adding 15.

Coach James Vear was very frustrated, ““I’m very disappointed in the way we played tonight, I can take a defeat if I feel like the guys left everything on the floor but they didn’t do that tonight. At times we just didn’t compete and against a team like Bradford you have to do that for 40 minutes. This is not meant to take anything away from Bradford, they are a well coached team who know how to win.”

Fenyn also complimented the Dragons, “Bradford did a good job coming in and playing to their strengths. They are a unit that has played together for multiple seasons and that was reflected in the last 5 minutes of the game.”

Medway now has a weekend off before facing a double header weekend when they host London Leopards on 8 October at 5:00 at Medway Park before travelling to NASSA on the 9 October in the 2nd round of the National Cup.

20 teams, 4 age groups, 3 courts, 12 hours, 30 games

This Saturday, 10 September, will see the Medway Park Crusaders host their first major national league pre-season tournament. There will be Under 14, 16, 18 and men’s games happening across 3 courts from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. This is your first chance to see the Crusaders’ squads and new signings in action and also features several leading clubs from across the South.

Court 1
9:00 U14 Medway Park v Solent
10:00 U18 Medway Park v Bristol
11:30 Men Medway Park v Bristol
1:00 U16 Bristol v Worthing
2:00 U14 Worthing v Lampton
3:00 U18 Medway Park v Worthing
4:30 Men Medway Park v Leopards
6:00 U18 Medway Park v Barking Abbey
7:30 Men Medway Park v US Select

Court 2
9:00 U14 Worthing v Bucks
10:00 U18 Worthing v Barking Abbey
11:30 Men Leopards v US Select
1:00 U16 Bucks v Solent
2:00 U16 Medway Park I v Bristol
3:00 U18 Bristol v Barking Abbey
4:30 Men Bristol v US Select
6:00 U18 Bristol v Worthing
7:30 Men Bristol v Leopards

Court 3
9:00 U16 Medway Park I v Worthing
10:00 U16 Bucks v Medway Park II
11:00 U14 Kingston v Solent
12:00 U14 Bucks v Lampton
1:00 U14 Medway Pak v Kingston
2:00 U16 Solent v Medway Park II
3:00 U14 5th place game
4:00 U16 5th place game
5:00 U14 3rd place game
6:00 U16 3rd place game
7:00 U14 Final
8:00 U16 Final

Some brief notes for everyone form AGM/Awards – photos and press release to follow:

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