The Medway Park Crusaders crashed out of the Patrons Cup with two defeats this weekend, away at Plymouth Marjons and at home against Brixton Topcats as their defence let them down.
In the Saturday game in Plymouth the Medway team let the hosts put up 28 points in the first quarter, and it was clear that the defence was nowhere near where it needed to be. The Marjon players scored inside and out, and took advantage of Crusaders’ mistakes to draw fouls and get to the foul line.
After having traded baskets for the first five minutes of the game Marjons went on a 21-7 run to go up 31-18. Crusaders answered with a run of their own to bring it within five, 36-31, midway through the second quarter, as James Harris got hot, but defensively they were still struggling. Marjons went on another run and soon took the lead back up to 15, 51-36.
“Jut before half time we finally started to show some life defensively”, said Crusaders head coach Mads Olesen, “and I thought we’d find our stride early on in the second half. It didn’t quite happen like that, but we did end up playing some decent defence”.
Early in the half it looked like the hosts would crush the Kent team, as Saul Rodgers went on an eight point tear to put Plymouth up by 19, 64-45, but Crusaders suddenly found their stride and scored 16 unanswered points on their way to a 27-6 run that put them up by two a couple of minutes into the final quarter.
Crusaders must have thought they had the game under control but Marjons’ Saul Rodgers again went on a mission, and again Crusaders did not have an answer. Rodgers had 14 points in the last seven minutes of play, mixing up three pointers with raids to the basket that placed him on the foul line over and over again.
With three minutes left in the game the score was tied at 79 but two threes from Rodgers and a couple of layups from John Peake gave Plymouth a nine point advantage with two minutes to go. Crusaders tried for another come-back but were unable to complete it and had to take the long road back to Kent with a six point loss, 95-89.
In the second game of the weekend Crusaders had to try to regroup against a strong Brixton team, but it ended up being a mirror image of the game against Plymouth.
The teams traded baskets for much of the first quarter, with Brixton only pulling away in the last two minutes to take a 24-18 lead. Crusaders still struggled after the break, though, as they didn’t score, and Brixton pulled away for a 12 point lead, 30-12.
The Crusaders kept making mistakes offensively and Brixton punished any mistake swiftly with a fast break and five minutes into the quarter Crusaders were down 19, 45-26. At this point Crusaders changed their defence and JP Dimandja’s presence in the middle toughened up the Medway defence. In the last four minutes of the half Brixton only scored one basket, while Crusaders quietly chipped away at the lead to go to half time down only 10, 47-37.
After the break the teams traded baskets as Brixton never lead by more than 13 while Crusaders got as close as seven and five on several occasions, but were unable to close the gap completely.
In the last two minutes it looked like a tired Crusader team ran out of steam and Brixton were able to build the lead to 17 with a last second three pointer.
“We just did not get it done on the defensive end all weekend”, said coach Olesen after the game. “There really isn’t that much to say about it. Defensively we were poor, but showed that we don’t have to be, when we play defence together and play hard. We just have to go back into training and correct those things for next weeks National Cup game against Sevenoaks and the league opener in two weeks.”
Statistics of Brixton game available here: Crusaders v. Brixton
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