The Under 14’s have played their two first friendlies against Folkeston Saints and Brighton Cougars.

The Kent Crusaders Under 14’s National League team had their first pre-season friendly on Sunday 7th September against Folkestone Saint’s Under 14 CVL side. Coach Matt Fenton took 10 players from his squad of 16 down to face them and 4 Folkestone players from the same squad played on the Folkestone side.

It was Coach Fenton’s first chance to see how his squad of players would play together in a game situation and stuck religiously to a 5-on, 5-off regime throughout the game. This gave the two 5 men teams a chance to get to know each other on the court and it worked well.

Folkestone started the better of the two sides getting some early baskets, but shortly after, Crusaders began to gain confidence, took control and had put up 20 points by the end of the first quarter.

Folkestone played better in the second quarter, holding Crusaders to only half the number of points they got in the first quarter, but as the game wore on Crusaders got their rhythm back and with Coach Fenton working them hard from the sidelines ended up 54-17 winners.

Max Carpenter collected the winners’ trophy on behalf of the team and Liam Carpenter collected the MVP award for scoring 22 points.

Kent Crusaders

Name Pts

Ciaran Kelleher 6

Lee Memmott 6

Alex Armstrong 0

Ayo Salawu 6

Max Carpenter 0

Liam Carpenter 22

Reigan Loader 0

Callum Thomas 4

Tommy Dobson 0

Liam Robinson 0

Juniors Lose Friendly Against Brighton Cougars

Kent Crusader’s Under 14 National League team lost to the Brighton Cougars in a pre-season friendly on Saturday 13th September. Coach Matt Fenton’s team played well against the Cougars but couldn’t close an early gap that the Cougars opened up in the first few minutes of the game.

As with the first pre-season friendly, Crusaders made a nervous start that allowed the Cougars to take charge of the game, but they gained in confidence and out scored the Brighton side in the 2nd quarter to go into half time just 4 points behind.

The game got away from Coach Fenton’s side in the third quarter as the Cougars put up 23 points to Crusaders 12.

However in the fourth quarter Crusaders showed great determination and again outscored the Cougars to close the gap to 13 points and the game finished up Crusaders losing 64-51.

This is the first opportunity that Coach Fenton has had to see how his team would compete against a National League side and they certainly played well and didn’t look out of place against a team that is in a league above them.

Kent Crusaders

Name, Pts

Ciaran Kelleher: 2

Lee Memmott: 0

Alex Armstrong: 11

Ayo Salawu: 2

Max Carpenter: 6

Liam Carpenter: 10

Harry Willey: 6

Callum Thomas: 8

Tommy Dobson: 2

Liam Robinson: 2

Kyle Vincett: 0

Tyler Russell: 2

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 9:54 am and is filed under Under 14s. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.