Steve Findley lead the scoring with 17 points with Robbie Parker and Mike Webber adding 12 points each as the Body and Mind Crusaders overcame the Sevenoaks Suns 73-40 to advance to the next round of the National Cup.

Head coach Mads Olsen commented on the game ”It’s nice to start the season with a win, and we have to be happy about the result. We set a defensive club record, and we have made great strides defensively from the two games we played last weekend”

Crusaders held a young Sevenoaks team to just 40 points which broke the previous club record for lowest points allowed in a game (45) versus Solent in the 05/06 season.

Crusaders started the game strongly and with Steve Findley scoring 8 points in the opening quarter the home team jumped out to a 12 point lead. The Suns were held to only 10 points in the 1st quarter with Damian Lyons, Jeff Wadey and Rikki Broadmore playing aggressive full court defense, disrupting the Sevenoaks guards. Despite sending Sevenoaks to the free throw line 7 times in the first period they only made 4 of these.

Sevenoaks opened the 2nd quarter scoring 2 points to take the score to 22-12. But Crusaders again behind their strong defensive play put together an 8-0 run to lead by 18 points with 6 minutes left in the half. Sevenoaks managed to find some rhythm offensively and the two teams traded baskets up to half time leaving the score at 43-23.

The 3rd quarter saw Crusaders again come out strong on defense giving up a number of cheap fouls early handing the Suns 12 more shots from the free throw line in the quarter. The game was over as a contest by this point and Crusaders used the opportunity to run through different offensive sets, coach Olsen said ” In the second half we were looking to run set offense, to prepare for the upcoming Patrons Cup and Division 2 games. Sevenoaks playing hard even if they were behind gave us excellent opportunity to test some things out. We didn’t score as much as we could have, but it was very valuable to us long term”. Despite this Crusaders still won the quarter 14-11.

The home team finished the game well wining the final period 16-6 with Lyons pulling the strings on offense. Lyons finished with 10 assists, just one behind the club record held by Gary Davison. The final score ended 73-40.

Coach Olsen had this to say about Sevenoaks performance ”Sevenoaks played a good game. They are a well coached team with a lot of young players who will only get better in time”. Crusaders will now meet Worthing Thunder in the 3rd round of the National Cup.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 9:40 pm and is filed under Game Reports. 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.