The Body and Mind Kent Crusaders suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Northampton Neptunes at the weekend going down by 117 points to 85 in their first away game of the season. Despite more balanced scoring compared to last week, with 4 different Crusader players scoring in double figures, the Kent team couldn’t cope with some physical play from Northampton and their start player Renoso, who had 40 points.

Crusaders started the game well, coming out fired up despite a 2 hour road trip. Behind some tough shots from Robbie Parker, who scored 10 of the first 17 points for the away team, they jumped out to a 6-point lead after 7 minutes. However Northampton tightened up their defence and only allowed Crusaders 2 points in the final 3 minutes of the first quarter. A 16-2 run from Northampton saw them end the quarter with an 8 point advantage.

Crusaders again came out strong in the opening of the second quarter closing Northampton’s lead to just 1 point. During this run Steve Findley hit two 3-pointers on his way to 11 points in the quarter. But Northampton again rallied round their defence shutting down Parker and making it hard for the rest of the team to score. Norhampton guard Spatcher hit three 3’s to spark a 14-5 run for the home team, giving them a 10 point advantage at the half.

Crusaders could only manage 15 points in the 3rd period as the Northampton defence continued to cause them problems. Mike Webber lead the scoring for Crusadres in this quarter and he finished with a team high 17 points. Crusaders head coach Mads Olesen highlighted Northampton’s dominance in the physical battle as a key factor, he commented that despite Damian Lyons his team shyed away from the contact. Northampton had extended their lead to 21 points by the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the final quarter Crusaders pressed full court from the off with some success but they couldn’t get their offense going. Northampton packed the key and forced the away team into lots of outside shots, as their size inside also caused Crusaders problems going to the basket. Crusaders went on a 10-4 run with 8 minutes left, as Lyons and Harris connected on 3-pointers but Northampton finished the game strongly, eventually coming away winners by 32 points.

After the game Mads Olesen commented ”We need to go back to practice and then come out and prove a point next weekend. We’re better that what we showed against Northampton”