Mark Gilbard’s 35 points for Plymouth Saturday night was enough to see of a mixed Kent Crusaders performance. A good crowd at Body and Mind saw Crusaders dominate the first quarter leading by 25 points to 12, but then fade as the game wore on eventually going down 71-96.

Crusaders started strongly with consecutive baskets from Captain Pete Ayling who led the team with 14 points. Cannons struggled to contain the home team’s hot shooting in the first quarter and Sam Betts came off the bench with back to back 3-pointers bringing the crowd to their feet and opening up a ten point lead. Crusaders tight defence forced turnovers from the Plymouth big men Peard and Kakonde, holding the team to 12 points in the quarter.

The break in play was in Plymouth’s favour as they regrouped and won the second quarter by 15 points. Gilbard started the comeback, hitting an open 3-pointer and from then on the away side didn’t look back. Baskets from Mike Webber and James Harris kept Crusaders in contention only trailing by 2 points at half time.

The second half was no different as Plymouth went from strength to strength as they found even more space on offence allowing them to get good looks for their shooters. However the Kent team kept up their intensity, as JP Dimandja was controlling the boards, finishing 11 rebounds, but they couldn’t eat into Plymouth’s lead. They had it all to do going into the final quarter 10 points down.

However Plymouth all but finished the game off in the first few minutes of the final quarter, Gilbard and Rodgers continued to prove Crusaders problems on defence. Crusaders guards Broadmorre and Lyons pushed the tempo trying to claw Crusaders back in the game but the team could only manage 10 points in the final quarter. This wasn’t going to be enough to avoid a repeat of last year where Cannons beat Crusaders twice in the league. The final score of 96-71 reflected the difference in shooting between the two teams who were evenly matched in all other areas. Plymouth hit 52% from 3’s compared to Crusaders 35%.

Crusaders now face some tough games in the weeks ahead as they look to maintain their division 2 status. Coach Mads Olesen said this about the game ”The first quarter we showed just how well we can play. But at this level you need to put together 40 minutes of good basketball, which is something we’ve been saying all year. In the next few games we need to do that, show what were capable of and do whatever it takes to get some results”

· Rikki Broadmore needs 8 more assists to break record for assists in a season (held by Gary Davison, 71)

· James Harris has moved into 5th on all time scoring list and all time Field Goals Made

· Mike Webber has moved into 3rd for career FTM, needs 4 more to pass Robbie Parker for 2nd. He also needs 6 rebounds to pass Walter Moyse for 4th in career rebounds

· Damian Lyons needs to 2 assists to reach 100 career assists (currently 2nd behind Jeff Wadey’s 114)

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