The Kent Crusaders Under 14 National League team had a very tough game against the league leaders Newham Youngbloods on Saturday 15^th November. Having come off the back of two league victories, the pressure was on the team to put on a good showing and they did just that.

Unlike previous games, Crusaders started the scoring and looked very strong in the first quarter playing hard defence and taking their opportunities when going to the basket. It was proving to be a very close run game and Crusaders finished the quarter slightly ahead 18-16.

Crusaders kept up their high intensity game and put up 16 points to Newham’s 4 in the second quarter and they finished the half with a 14 point advantage. Coach Matt Fenton was keen to impress on the team that even with a 14 point lead the game was far from over and that they needed to be at their best to close out the game.

Newham came out strong in the second half and that combined with Crusaders making silly mistakes in ball control and passing, closed the gap to 5 points going into the final quarter.

Throughout the fourth quarter Crusaders managed to keep the gap to 2 or 4 points until the last couple of minutes when Newham drew level. With 16 seconds left on the clock and the scores drawn at 58-58 Crusaders had a side line possession. Unfortunately Liam Carpenter took too long to get the ball in play and the possession was given to Newham. However, Liam kept his head and immediately blocked the incoming ball and forced Newham to knock the ball out of play giving Crusaders back the possession with 14 seconds left. Liam Robinson brought the ball up into Newham’s half and took the ball deep into the front court. With 8 seconds left, he shot the ball long over the basket where Callum Thomas collected the ball and shot it back up into the basket with 4 seconds to go.

What a time to get Crusaders’ 100^th field goal in the league this season.

Newham had no more timeouts left and had to bring the ball up from the baseline but ran out of time. Crusaders won the game 60-58. This was an important victory for the Under 14’s, beating the league leaders away from home.

Coach Fenton said “Winning any game in the last 4 seconds is always pleasing but it’s made even better when you beat a team with the calibre of Newham Youngbloods. The amazing team spirit and determination in the squad really shone through in the final few minutes.”

That win puts Kent Crusaders into 2^nd place with equal points to Newham Youngbloods and just 8 scored points difference separating the two teams. As the league currently stands Crusaders are the highest scoring team with 243 points.

Kent Crusaders next scheduled match is against Sevenoaks Suns on Saturday 22^nd November at home.

Statistics

EBL National League Under 14’s Boys South II Division

Newham Youngbloods (16, 20, 39) 58

Kent Crusaders  (18, 34, 44) 60

Scoring:

Kent: Liam Carpenter 18, Callum Thomas 14, Joe Denton 8

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:15 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.