The preseason away trip to Bristol turned sour despite a 55 point win over Bristol 2 and a very competitive game against Bristol Flyers, last year’s number 4 in Division 1.

A team of eight Crusaders made the trip, but only six healthy bodies returned as injuries hit standouts Robbie Parker and Simon Mitchell in the game against the Division 1 hosts on Sunday.

Despite Parker having to leave the game with three minutes left in the first half with a back injury, the Crusaders played a very competitive game against the hosts. In the first half the Division 2 underdogs twice came back from being down seven to tie the score at half time.

Robbie Parker led the charge with 16 of the team’s 38 points before he had to leave the court with the Crusaders down three. Initially Bristol capitalized on Parker’s absence by going up seven, 48-41, as Mitchell was also on the bench with foul trouble, but the remaining Crusaders mounted a comeback behind Jeff Wadey’s aggressive drives to the basket.

“We took Robbie Parker off more as a precaution”, said Crusaders head coach Mads Olesen. “Robbie twisted his back a little, and we didn’t want to risk anything serious happening in a preseason friendly. While Robbie was playing a really good game I was really pleased with how the rest of the team responded when he sat down.“

The guests opened up the second hot from the outside as Danish newcomer Soren Sorensen and James Harris hit three pointers to take a 60-52 lead, while Mitchell forced several turnovers with his intense defence. The experienced hosts slowly clawed their way back in the game, however, as the extremely athletic Greg Streete got in the lane on a couple of occasions. Despite the hosts levelling the score at 63 apiece with two minutes left in the quarter the Crusaders were able to take a one point into the intermission.

After the break Bristol’s Makuwski quickly hit two three pointers, and the hosts had opened up a 10 point lead, 81-71 when Mitchell got injured twisting his ankle going after a loose ball.

“Initially it looked really bad”, said Olesen, “but an ankle sprain is really hard to judge the first 24 hours, so we’ll just wait and see. Simon showed great promise this weekend, as his defence is really some of the best I’ve seen in a long time, so we’re hoping he’s not going to miss a lot of time. Fortunately we have two full weeks till the season opener, so he’ll have some time to recover”.

After Mitchell’s injury the Crusaders tried to put together another comeback, but never got closer than seven and the hosts could walk away with a 91-78 win against the underdog visitors.

“Even if we didn’t get the win I was really happy with the way we played. Bristol defeated Plymouth Marjon Cannons from our division by 50 on Saturday, so us getting this close with two of our main players not being able to finish the game speaks volumes of the progress we’ve made and our chances of getting a good result at the end of the year.”

Veteran guard Jeff Wadey was impressed with the performance of his team: “It seems that things are really coming together. Offensively we’re really clicking, which is rare this early in the season. We’ve put in a lot of work individually over the summer and us being able to get this close to a Division 1 side even if we only had eight players really bodes well for the future”’

The first game of the weekend was the Soren Sorensen-show, as the young Dane managed to put up 34 points against the Bristol reserves in his Crusaders debut.

“The 34 points, which ranks second on the club history list of points scored in a game, came against a young and inexperienced Bristol Academy team, but it still ranks as the most promising first games in Club history”, said Olesen of the performance. “We knew we’d get a strong young man and a good defender, but I didn’t see a break-out performance like this coming this soon. We were expecting Soren to have to develop quite a bit before seeing him do this, but it’s really a pleasant surprise.”

The Crusaders broke open the game in the first quarter as they took a 30-10 lead with Sorensen and Mitchell scoring 17 of the points.

“Defensively we looked good coming out of the gate, but then we allowed the young Plymouth team to score 20 points in the second quarter”, said Olesen, “To say I was unhappy at half time despite a 27 point lead is an understatement. We made stupid mistakes and just didn’t play to the best of our ability defensively. My philosophy is that you must strive to play your best no matter if you’re up 20 or down 20 and I let the players know that.”

The Crusaders must have listened to their coach as they shut down the hosts and went on a 37 to 9 run in the third and fourth quarters behind Mitchell’s defence, Sorensens inside shooting and five three pointers from four different players. From that 96-47 lead the Crusaders cruised in for a 110-54 win.

Overall coach Olesen rates the weekend as very good, but he’s worried about the injury situation; “We showed we’re on the way towards becoming the kind of team we want to be, but already we have four injuries, which is really worrisome. Apart from the injuries sustained this weekend Rikki Broadmore and Sam Betts are struggling with knee injuries. We’re hoping to get everybody ready for the season opener on September 27th, but realistically we’re probably looking at the Division 2 opener a month later before everybody is back.”

Notes:

Robbie Parker is now the career field goal leader for Crusaders, passing Paul Jessop this weekend.

Statistics

Bristol Flyers 2 vs. Kent Crusaders 54-110 (14-30, 34-57, 42-74)
Scoring:
Bristol: Treassure 12, Loftman 9, Hassan 8
Kent: Sorensen 34, Mitchell 19, Harris 18, Parker 16.

Bristol Flyers vs. Kent Crusaders 91-78 (29-22, 48-48, 67-68)
Scoring:
Bristol: Makowski 29, Streete 23, Till 17
Kent: Parker 16, Harris 15, Findley 13, Dimandja 8.