The first game was against Reading Rockets who have yet to win a game this season. Expectations of a good start to the away games was high but it didn’t turn out that way with Reading getting a great start and Crusaders failing to score for the first 6 minutes of the game. Turnovers were recorded for the first time in this game and Crusaders made 14 in the first quarter alone! They were keen to get to the end of the first quarter and it finished 8-4 to the Rockets.

Coach Matt Fenton steadied the ship in the end of quarter talk and it showed in the second quarter. Crusaders came out in the second quarter and really played to their strengths and dealt with Reading’s attack much better. Crusaders shot 62% in this quarter putting up 23 points to Reading’s 12. They also gave away less turnovers and protected the ball better. The first half finished 27-20 to Crusaders.

It was a very close third quarter with Reading keeping up with Crusaders shooting. Crusaders ended the quarter 18 points to Reading’s 16. Turnovers were also down to 5 for the quarter. The third quarter ended 45-36 to Crusaders.

Crusaders only managed to shoot 31% from the field in the last quarter and only shot 1 free throw from 4. There were 8 turnovers and Rockets scored 16 to Crusaders 13 and the game finished 58-52 to Crusaders.

Coach Matt Fenton said “I was very pleased with both performances despite only winning 1 game. Our 1st game showed the team spirit within the camp as we came back from a very slow start to win comfortably. More importantly, all 12 players got minutes on the court. A season’s best performance from Harry Willey would have won MVP for him in most games but Tyler Russell’s 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists gave him this honour in this game. It is really pleasing to see some squad players now really pushing the starters for their spots.”

Coach Matt Fenton’s MVP for this game was Tyler Russell.

Next game was against Bucks Hornets.

This was going to be a much tougher test for the Crusaders team as they had lost heavily to Bucks earlier on in the season and they wanted to prove that they had improved since then.

Bucks came out in the first quarter very strong and Crusaders struggled getting to grips with the speed in which Bucks turned defence into offence. Although Crusaders had more shots than Bucks (13 to 11) Bucks converted 81% (9) to Crusaders 23% (3) and this meant that the quarter ended 18-6 to Bucks.

The second quarter was a much better display from Crusaders and they out shot Bucks 70% (7-10) to 45% (5-11). Defense was much better and Crusaders finished the quarter scoring 17 points to Bucks 14. The half time score was 32-23 to Bucks.

Unfortunately as Bucks put their starting 5 back on it was a similar story to the first quarter with Bucks converting 40% to Crusaders 25%. Turnovers were much lower in this game (21 vs 34 in the first game) but Crusaders were giving the ball away too much against an opposition like this and were getting punished for it. The quarter finished with Bucks scoring 14 to Crusaders 7. The score was 46-30