In front of a capacity crowd the Kent Crusaders beat the London Mets in Canterbury in an extremely competitive Saturday Patrons Cup game, 71-67. On Sunday Division 4 Sevenoaks Suns visited for a National Cup fixture and was sent home with a 101-53 defeat.

“The game against London Mets is really one of the best basketball games I’ve seen, let alone coached in a number of years”, said Crusaders head Coach Mads Olesen at the end of the weekend. “Both teams just went at each other for the full forty minutes. We didn’t play perfect basketball, but two teams of very good players just went at each other hard, creating an amazing game.”

The London Mets, coached by veteran London coach Solomon Ayinla, featuring several of the young bright talents of London basketball including Arturo Noha, Courtney Van-Beest and Deng Deng had won their first game of the Patrons Cup through a fast start but in Canterbury the Crusaders came out stronger in front of a loud capacity crowd.

The home side took a 9-0 lead before the visitors got started but the Mets managed to level the game at 16-16 as they showed some explosive scoring. The Crusaders managed to starve off the onslaught until three minutes before the half when the Mets went on a 20-3 scoring spree that lasted into the second half.

“At half time we changed a couple of things tactically to counter the full court press the Mets put on, and changed up our defence, and a couple of minutes into the second half it really started to pay off,” said coach Olesen.

The Crusaders repeatedly broke through the press for easy baskets and that seemed to kick their defence into gear, holding the Mets to only 20 points for last 18 minutes of the game. Robbie Parker and Soren Sorensen did a lot of the damage on the offensive end, as they both drove to the basket, Parker ending up with 29 points for the game.

Slowly the home team reined in the lead until the Crusaders finally took the lead with three minutes played in the fourth quarter, 57-56 on a Robbie Parker basket. The Mets briefly regained the lead a minute later, 61-59, but the Crusaders scored the next seven straight.

Despite a scare when the Mets got within 3 in the last minute through two Noha drives through the middle the Crusaders managed to hold on as Rafal Sojczynski sank a free throw with three seconds to go to seal the win, 71-67.

“It was one of those games where either team could have walked away the winner”, said Olesen, “I think in the end the difference was our experience. Robbie Parker consistently found ways to score and Simon Mitchell just took control of the game the last two minutes, and we looked for the right shots, while the young Mets maybe panicked a little at the end. With a few more games under their belt at this level, they are really going to be hard to beat. I see them as one of the favourites to win the league this year”.

The National Cup game on Sunday proved easier for the Crusaders, as Division 4 side Sevenoaks Suns were hard hit by injuries and were only able to suit up six players for the game.

After a shaky start where the visitors were in the game for the first five minutes, prompting Coach Olesen to bench all five Crusaders starters, the home team ran out to a 28-14 lead after the first quarter.

“Sevenoaks’s Ballam was injured after eight minutes, and from that point onwards the game was really a given as they were now unable to substitute and rest their players”, said coach Olesen after the game, “I thought they were very well organized, and had some good players, but as each period progressed they obviously tired and we could walk away with it.”

At the start of the second period the visitors briefly looked to make a game out of it as they scored the first five points to make it 28-19 Crusaders, but Simon Mitchell and Robbie Parker then led a Crusaders charge on both offence and defence. The Crusaders outscored the visitors 24-6 the rest of the quarter and a halftime score of 52-25 meant the game was all but over.

In the second half the Crusaders steadily outscored the visitors and at the end of the game were able to put on a bit of a show for the crowd as Simon Mitchell connected with JP Dimandja for an alley-oop dunk.

Top scorer for the game was Sevenoaks’ young point guard Ryan Taylor, while six Crusaders scored between 10 and 20 points.

Full game stats: http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/1454/00/27/10/78CWVGhQjZiZE/

Notes:

• The game was attended by two of the brightest young stars of UK basketball, Harriet Yea, 2006/07 England Under 18 player of the year, and Ryan Richards, member of team UK, ex member of the Kent Crusaders and England under 16 player of the year 2007.

Statistics

Kent Crusaders v. London Mets 71-67

Patrons Cup Pool 1

Scoring:

Mets: Deng 21, Noha 16

Kent: Parker 29, Sorensen 19

Kent Crusaders v. Sevenoaks Suns 101-53

National Cup

Scoring:

Sevenoaks: Taylor 26, Henry 10

Kent: Dimandja 19, Harris 16.

Patrons Cup