The Kent Crusaders lost their fourth straight game Saturday as they went down 91-69 to London Mets.
“We lost Simon Mitchell and Robbie Parker to fouls and injury early in the game”, said Crusaders coach Mads Olesen, “We were just not able to break down the Met’s defence without them”.
The Crusaders lost Canadian star guard Simon Mitchell to injury only five minutes into the game. The quick and athletic Mets team took advantage of the injury and immediately went on a 13-to-0 run to close out the first quarter as they pressured the Crusaders into making mistakes.
The Crusaders entered the second quarter down 13, 23-10. The Crusaders got a boost as JP Dimandja came on and led the team both offensively and defensively. The Mets lead shrunk to 7 points, but a couple of missed shots and turnovers undid all the work as Mets brought the lead back to 13 at the break.
After the break the Crusaders got some good looks at the basket, but they were unable to convert, even when they got three or four chances in one offensive possession.
“Those are chances that we would have made easily a month ago”, said Olesen, “But now we’re maybe playing a little scared, as we have lost a few games. It’s understandable, but I guess we have nothing to lose now, so we’ll have to find a way get around that”.
The Mets put on a physical full court press and Robbie Parker was called for two quick offensive fouls as he tried to break loose from the defenders to receive a pass, and was forced to leave the game with five fouls.
Over the next five minutes the Mets build the lead to 28, but in the last three minutes of the quarter Crusaders started getting stops on defence and behind Dimandja’s two baskets and four rebounds were able to bring it within 22, 64-42.
Crusaders looked set to continue the run in the fourth quarter as James hit three 3-pointers to bring the Mets lead to 18, but the fifth minute of the quarter proved fatal for the home team.
First Sam Betts reacted as he was called for a blocking foul on what looked like a clear offensive foul by Mets big man Paul Young. Betts appeared to be shouting at the referees resulting in both a technical and a disqualifying foul on top of the blocking foul. That gave the Mets six straight foul shots and the ball back at mid court afterwards with a lead of 24, 77-53.
On the following possession James Harris was called for an unsportsmanlike foul on what appeared to be an ordinary defensive move resulting in contact, again putting the Mets on the line for two foul shots and getting the ball back afterwards. All in all the Mets shot eight foul shots without Crusaders ever touching the ball.
“Before the incidents we had just had a time-out, and the players were convinced that if they could bring the lead below ten the Mets would get nervous like the last time we played and we’d have chance of pulling out the come-back. I can understand why Sam Betts reacted to the call, but he should really know better. Getting yourself ejected helps no one.”
In reality the game was over at that point, and though Crusaders pulled back within 20, the Mets could cruise home to an easy victory, 91-69.
London Mets and NEWI are the only undefeated teams left in the league as NEWI continued their string of wins at
Loading ...
Entries (RSS)