The Crusaders Basketball Academy based at The Canterbury High School, pulled of a huge shock in defeating the Barking Abbey Basketball Academy 58-57 in the Final 16s of the England Schools competition.  With the win they qualify for the quarterfinals (draw yet to be held).

Having lost to Hackney twice in the past month (both in national semi-finals) Canterbury knew that they needed an improved performance if they were to upset Barking.  Barking Abbey have made the national final for 3 years in a row prior to this year.

Head coach Jesse Sazant was clear about how the win was acheived, “Our team defence and toughness was excpetional today.  Despite giving up size and athleticism at every position on the floor, we continually made big plays on defence and did a great job rebounding.”

Barking scored the opening basket of the game to take a 2-0 lead.  Rob Vassie immediately responded with a 3 to give the Crusaders the lead.  Thsi turned out to be a lead they would never relinquish through the thity-nine remaining minutes.

Over the opening 8 minutes the Crusaders held Barking to a further 2 points only.  Meanwhile they racked up 19 of their own to race to a 19-4 lead, with Vassie scoring 8 of the points.  Barking soon recovered as Teddy Okereafor scored 5 quick points and Sam Dunscombe hit a 3 pointer on the buzzer to reduce the lead to 22-14 at the end of the first.

Barking continued to exert control as the second quarter opened, as another 7 points from Okereafor sparked a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 25-23.  Once again Canterbury’s defence held firm as they shut out Barking for 4 minutes while scoring 8 of their own points to stretch the lead back to double figures.  Barking briefly recovered and trailed 37-30 at the half.

The third quarter turned into a defensive battle as both teams struggled to score.  The teams traded baskets with no one able to make a significant run.  Two big baskets by Tom Humphrey helped Canterbury to briefly stretch the lead to 13, but Barking were able to cut the lead to 9, 47-38 at the end of the third.  The two teams had combined for only 18 points between them in the quarter.

The final quarter was a classic.  The opening 5 minutes were again dominated by defence.  Okereafor asserted himself again as Barking closed the gap to 5 points.  Vassie again stepped up and hit his fifth 3 pointer of the game to give Canterbury some breathing space.  With 2 minutes remaining, they lead was 58-49.  A couple of baskets by Martin cut the lead to 4 as Canterbury struggled to score.  Okereafor then added another basket and a pair of foul shots to cut the lead to 1 with less than a minute remaining.  With fouls to give Barking aggressively looked to force a turnover.  After Barking fouled twice, the Crusaders turned the ball over out of bounds with 20 seconds left.  Barking were only able to get off a difficult shot before the Crusaders grabbed the rebound and were able to run the clock out before Barking could foul.

Coach Sazant was really pleased after the game saying, “This was a great win for our school and club, but most of all for the guys.  They learned their lesson from the Hackney losses and went out and played with confidence and made big plays when they mattered.  Our guards really showed up today hitting 8 3s between them and looking after the ball throughout the game.  Rob was terrific leading the team and Kalil Irving was immense on the defensive boards, sacrificing some of his own game to do a job for the team.  I am really proud of what the guys have accomplished.”

Vassie top scored with 17 points, followed by Disraeli Lufadeju with 12, Andy Chiguri with 10, Tom Humphrey with 8 and Dave Tait with 7.