The Medway Park Crusaders beat the NEWI Nets in a close game Saturday and looked poised to move into a playoff spot in the Sunday game against Birmingham A’s, but suffered a heavy defeat as two players fouled out and coach James Vear got ejected, earning him a suspension.

Glyndwr and Birmingham were one and two wins ahead of Crusaders before the weekend, and Coach Vear thought the weekend: “We had spoken all week about this weekend being the most important in the season, with two wins we knew we could really push up the league”.

Date Played: Saturday, 13-February-2010

Home Team: Medway Park Crusaders 76

Away Team: Glyndwr Nets 70

Venue: Medway Park

Scores:

Leading Scorers:

Crusaders had lost a close game against the Nets in Wrexham earlier in the year and coach Vear thought it would be a difficult game: “Glyndwr are a very dangerous team with some stand out players like Casenove, Duppa & Baba. We knew they matched up well against us and this would be a tight game”

Glyndwr got off to a very fast start with Duppa’s low post play giving the Crusaders trouble. The guests were up 8-0 after two minutes and 6 early Duppa points. Crusaders didn’t fold, though and as James Harris and Brad Smith hit two straight three pointers the team settled down. The teams traded baskets for the rest of the quarter with the Crusaders edging the first quarter 20-19.

At quarter time coach Vear wasn’t happy with the performance: “We knew we had to step up our effort on the defensive end if we wanted to maintain a foothold in this game. 19 points to be scored against you in a quarter is way too many and we had to take them out of their comfort zone. We always say good defensive leads to easy baskets and that what happened in the 2nd quarter.”

The Crusaders came out firing in the second and the Nets struggled to stop Brad Smith who would go on to score 13 points in the quarter. Crusaders went on a 8-0 run to get the lead out to double digits. Towards the end of the quarter the guests started to play through Usman Baba and began to get some rhythm but tow late James Harris threes extended the Crusader lead to 43-32 at half time.

In the third quarter the Nets started strongly behind Casenove’s outside shooting but was also taking the ball to the basket well. “Casenove was causing us real problems in the third and we knew we would have to try and get the ball out of his hands”, said Vear. “He was also excellent on the defensive end and put lots of pressure on our guards”. As a result the Nets continued to claw back the deficit, winning the quarter 19-13, for a small 56-51 Crusaders lead.

Casenove continued his good play to start the fourth to bring Nets back to within 2 points. Crusaders were looking for some consistency on offense as the Nets were smart on defense and tried to put a lot of pressure on the Crusader guards. This was making it hard for the Medway side to run good offence.

Kalil Irving, the 18 year old up and coming star, stepped up and was having one of his best games of the season as he played point guard for large proportions of the fourth. He stepped up when it looked bleak for Crusaders and scored six unanswered points.

Irvings raids to the basket opened the Nets defence as the youngster’s scoring threat allowed Crusaders to get the ball to Brad Smith, who would go on to have a game high 38 points.

Duppa, who had sat for large portions of the second half with foul trouble, rejoined the game, and managed to keep the guests within 3-5 points and Nets still remained very dangerous. Towards the end of the game the Nets came with full court pressure, which seemed to surprise the Crusaders bit, but they managed to calm down and run their press break and see out the game.

Coach Vear was happy with the result, but didn’t think it a good game: “The game was far from pretty tonight but it’s always good to win even if you don’t play well. I was happy with some individuals, though. Kalil Irving was excellent and really carried us at times in the fourth”.

Date Played: Sunday, 14-February-2010

Home Team: Birmingham A’s 89

Away Team: Medway Park Crusaders 69

Venue: Aston University, Woodcock Street Sport Centre

Scores:

Leading Scorers:

Crusaders didn’t celebrate the win against the Nets, knowing they had to travel to Birmingham the next day: “It was good to hear the team straight away look towards the game against Birmingham A’s on the Sunday,” said Vear. “We knew we had only done half of the job, and a win against Birmingham was what we needed to look towards. We knew if results went our way and we got a win we could push up to 7th in the league, which would be the first time we had been in a playoff position all year”.

Birmingham has had some tough results recently, among them a loss to Birmingham University, but looked to be back on track beating Mansfield by 20 on Saturday. They have some very good young players including Hesson and Tyson who are both GB U20 Internationals.

The game didn’t turn out the way Crusaders wanted, though, as Brad Smith only played 19 minutes before fouling out on a technical foul and Vear later being ejected from the game due to two technical fouls.

Crusaders were down by ten in the third quarter when Brad Smith picked up his fourth foul for a offensive foul, and then immediately was given a technical foul, his fifth and last, for arguing the call. “The referees were calling a very tight game on both sides”, said Vear, “and the frustration got to Brad. He will know in the future he has to curb it”

With the league’s top scorer not returning for the rest of the game it looked like it would be a tough ask for the Crusaders team but the team looked revitalised. The team scored 9 unanswered points behind Harris, Lyons and Betts and tied the game up with 3 minutes remaining in the third. The A’s called a timeout and came out strongly to end the quarter going on a 9-0 run of their own to take the lead out 13.

The A’s started the fourth quarter well and extended the lead. With 8 minutes remaining James Vear was ejected from the game for two technical fouls, after expressing his disbelief at a couple of missed calls for both teams, then kicking a chair. “I let my frustration get to me today and let the team down”, confessed Vear after the game. “I knew taking over the job midway through the season it would be a steep learning curve and I learnt a lot today. I will continue to work hard with the team to get them ready for a big game against Westminster next weekend”

After the loss of league top scorer Smith and coach Vear the A’s really pilled on the pressure to eventually pull away to a 89 – 69 win.

Birmingham had come out firing from the start of the game, scoring the first 6 points from the outside. Crusaders struggled to keep up with the A’s fast tempo and the A’s extended their lead to 12-2.

Coach Vear said: “We just didn’t turn up in the first five minutes and we looked a bit shocked. Once we calmed down, ran offense and took away the A’s fast break we managed to claw the deficit back”.

The quarter ended 19-16 to the A’s.

The A’s started the second quarter well, as Hesson’s quickness gave Crusaders real problems in transition. “Hesson got out on the break very well throughout the game”, said Vear, “and he finishes so well around the basket. We also didn’t do a good job boxing out and the A’s got various put backs in the first half”. Once again when the Crusaders settled down they played well with Betts and Currant both connecting with back to back threes to cut the lead to 6.

The 2nd Quarter was a scrappy one with neither team getting a hold on the game, both teams were struggling with the game being called tightly by the referees which was frustrating both coaches. The Crusaders were down 34 – 26 at the half.  

The start of the third would continue to be scrappy with neither team having much consistency on offense. The A’s did go on a 7 – 0 run 3 minutes into the third behind veteran guard Rob Hall before Smith got his back to back fouls and had to leave the game.

Looking back Vear was frustrated with the game, but pointed the finger towards himself and his team: “Today we didn’t play well as a team and know we need to work hard if we want to be successful. Although the refereeing was frustrating at times it had no reflection on the game and the A’s definitely deserved the win”

Coach Vear will be expecting a suspension from England Basketball, the length of which is still to be determined.

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