It was an eventful weekend in Division 2 with several big surprises. The Kent Crusaders men almost pulled off the come-from-behind victory at Division 2 favourites Leeds Carnegie. Down 10 with a minute to go the Crusaders set out to do an improbable come-back as they cut the lead to four with 25 seconds left, but the Kent side got hit by a couple of intentional foul calls that sealed the victory for the hosts. At the same time favourites Northumbria lost to Birmingham A’s and on Sunday the surprise of the year so far was winless Colchester beating Leeds.

For Crusaders Sam Betts got the come-back going with his fourth three-pointer of the game – an off balance shot that dropped in off the backboard and Robbie Parker followed up with another three-pointer and a steal that set up Sam Betts for another two points.

“With 25 seconds left we had to foul”, said Crusaders coach Mads Olesen of the last minute, “but Leeds moved the ball well to kill time and Damian Lyons was forced to give away an intentional foul that gave Leeds two foul shots and the ball back. In that situation it’s always a gamble, and today Leeds took home the prize. Leeds are still undefeated for the season as they have beaten all opponents in division 2 along with a couple of division 1 teams in the Cup and in the pre-season and leaving it to the last minute is just too late.”

The Crusaders started the game as they finished it – with a barrage of three pointers. Three threes by Mitchell, Parker and Sorensen in the first five minutes got Kent up 13-7, and they extended the lead to 23-13 before Leeds captain Stockwell hit a three to bring the hosts within seven.

In the first eight minutes of the second quarter the Crusaders only got two field goals to go along with five foul shots, and the hosts were able to go ahead on a Langford three-pointer. The Crusaders got the next four points from Robbie Parker, and were able to go to half time up one, 35-34.

The third quarter had Leeds written all over it as they ran off the first 12 points as Langford and Stockwell both hit three pointers. A time out steadied the guests and they went on a 10-1 run behind Sam Bett’s 7 points. The run could have been bigger had the Crusaders not missed three of four foul shots during the run. Leeds got back on track, however and just before the quarter buzzer Stockwell hit a three, his fifth of the game, to bring up the hosts 56-49.

In the fourth quarter Leeds got up by as much as 13 as Crusaders again struggled to score. Three pointers by Betts and Mitchell kept the score close enough to set up the last minute failed come-back.

Even though it looked like Crusaders had problems scoring coach Olesen saw the defence as the biggest problem: “We’re still not intensive enough defensively. Too many times we take a couple of plays off, and good teams like Leeds will punish that every time. An example is Stockwell. We knew from the first quarter onwards that he was a three point shooter and yet we allow him to hit five of them in the game. If we want to challenge for the league this year we need to stop the good players on the good teams.”

Robbie Parker thought the Crusaders were lacking a bit of focus “Leeds played a good game today, but I don’t think we were fully focused for all 40 minutes. We must keep things in perspective and re-focus for next weeks cup game”

The league is wide open after Leeds’ shocking defeat to Colchester and Northumbria’s loss to Birmingham A’s.

“Leeds losing to Colchester just came out of nowhere and Northumbria was one of my pre-season favourites to challenge for the division”, says Olesen, “Birmingham winning at Northumbria shows that we lost to a good team last week, and how tough this league is going to be. Nothing can be taken for granted. We might not have won yet, but we’ve played two of the toughest teams in the league away, and we’re not in that bad of a shape.”

NEWI Nets are a surprising first in the league with three straight wins, this weekend over Colchester. London Mets are second as they secured a 36 point win over Plymouth Cannons on Saturday. Rounding out the undefeated teams are Plymouth Raiders, who beat Northampton, and Birmingham A’s.

EBL National League Division 2

Leeds Carnegie (16, 35, 56) 81
Kent Crusaders (23, 34, 49) 71

Scoring:

Raiders: Stockwell 26, Roquette 16, Brown, Supola 14
Kent: Betts 17, Parker 15, Sorensen 9