The Medway Park Crusaders dropped back to back games this weekend, losing both fixtures on the double header weekend.

Saturday saw the BA London Leopards come away from Medway Park with a 103-92 victory in the National Trophy.  Crusaders were unable to regroup on Sunday as they saw themselves become an upset victim losing to the Newham (NASSA) Neptunes from EBL3 78-75 in the National Cup.

The Crusaders opened Saturday’s game strongly with some inside scoring from Canadian Joe Schow helping them establish an early 13-6 lead.  Leopards were able to trim the deficit to 19-16 by the end of the first quarter.

Tom Raymen caught fire in the second quarter hitting a trio of 3 point shots as Crusaders were able to maintain a lead through most of the quarter.  However a late 8-2 run by Leopards gave them a 4 point lead, 46-42 going into the halftime break.

In the third quarter, Leopards American guard Vernon Tell and British/Australian guard John Lister began to take over the game.  Behind the 2 guards and the energetic play of American forward Ousman Krubally, Leopards were able to stretch the lead to double figures.

Leopards continued to pour it on and the lead reached 20 late in the 4th quarter.  With both teams going to their benches, Crusaders all of a sudden regained the momentum and went on a 13-0 run to cut the lead to 7 with 90 seconds remaining.  It was too little too late for Crusaders though as they weren’t able to further reduce the deficit.

Coach Vear was notably frustrated after the game, “We were inconsistent tonight, especially defensively.  We have to try and put together 40 minutes of basketball.  At this level you have to play with consistency and we are not at that stage yet.”

Teel finished the game with 40 points for Leopards while Krubally added 27 and 10 rebounds.  But what impressed Vear most was the effort they both in, “Leopards 2 imports were great tonight.  I don’t think I have seen two imports work harder.  They hurt us in various ways tonight and I’m sure they will put big numbers all year.”

The one bright light for Vear was the play of some of the players at the end of the game.  “The bench players who came in at midway through the fourth did the team proud.  They showed the entire team just what hard work and determination does, that alone got us back in it with just over a minute left.”

Despite the poor defensive effort, 5 Crusaders did score in double figures led by Schow with 14, followed by Gareth Laws (13), Raymen (12), Adrian Fenyn (11) and Disraeli Lufadeju (10).

The loss means Crusaders can no longer qualify for the National Trophy quarterfinals, making their two remaining group games opportunities to get ready for league play which commences on 29 October.

Things didn’t get any better the next day as Medway Park found themselves knocked out of the National Cup by EBL3’s Newham Neptunes.

With Kalil Irving and Tom Raymen sitting out after picking up knocks against Leopards and Joe Schow also missing due to import rules, Crusaders started the game with little energy.  A very sloe start saw them score only 24 points in the first half as Newham took a 29-24 lead.

Medway Park came to life in the 3rd quarter, outscoring Newham 26-12 as they established a 50-41 lead going into the final quarter.  Newham showed no signs of letting up, and despite only scoring 41 points in the opening 30 minutes of the match, exploded for 37 4th quarter points on their way to the 78-75 victory.

Vear expressed his frustration saying, “Once again it comes down to consistency with us as there were some excellent points in the game where we played very well but we have to make sure we do that for 40 minutes.  Don’t take anything away from NASSA though, they came to play and were excellent all game long.”

Crusaders will now how to get themselves refocused as they travel to Derby next weekend in the National Trophy.  The Derby Trailblazers are currently 3-0 in the Trophy group so this will be a tough test for Crusaders.  American Troy Whittingdon has made an impressive start with Derby, and joins Rashi Kakd who played for Leicester as Derby’s key scorers.  They are surrounded by a strong group of experienced players with a good understanding of how to succeed at this level.

Vear is looking forward to getting back to training, “It’s my job to pick the guys up and get us working collectively together in practice.  We have a lot of new guys and it will take some time for us to all get on the right page.  I and the team are up for the challenge.”

“Derby look like the form team so far.  They have picked up some good wins against some very good teams, we have to make sure we come ready to play and make sure we get our consistency back.”