A short-handed Kent Crusaders side defeated another Division 1 Men’s team on Sunday afternoon, with a 92-83 win over Reading Rockets in the National Cup.

The victory saw the young squad, who were without four players, and had another play limited time due to injury, book their place in the semi-finals in what is becoming a surprise run for the Division 2 squad.

RJ Eytle-Rock was the star man, scoring 16 of his 23 in the first half, whilst he was ably support by Amin Adamu – who had a couple of jaw dropping dunks on his way to 20 points – and John Shodipo who finished with 18.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our guys,” said Crusaders Head Coach Lloyd Gardner after the game.

“We were short-handed, we had injuries, we had different issues. The guys we had did a tremendous job, they fought they scrapped.

“We had a great first half and then I was wondering in the second half, when they were coming back at us, if we just lost our legs. We had a heavy game last night and then again today, guys have put a lot of minutes in.

“I thought we responded very well, they got very close but we held our nerve and executed when we had to. I just couldn’t be prouder of our effort, I’m just really happy.”

Kent jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the early stages, before Reading big man Chris Hooper started to get going inside. Five minutes in and it was back to a one point game, before Crusaders managed to start pulling away again.

With a comfortable cushion and the lead approaching 20, Rockets’ Danny Carter reeled off 8 straight points to get the lead back to 10. Eytle-Rock responded before the break, scoring 5 points of his own in the final 10 seconds prior to the intermission as Kent held a 17 point lead at halftime.

In the third, Reading came out fired up, holding Crusaders to just 12 points in the period to get right back into the game, and down the stretch, despite Kent’s lead being reduce to two on multiple occasions, they were able to hold their nerve and execute when it mattered to pull out a crucial victory.

Chris Hooper led Reading with 26, as Kent will now await to find out who they will face in the semi-finals.

 

Saturday Report:

 

Crusaders Stay Perfect at Top of NBL Division 2

Kent Crusaders moved to 6-0 at the top of the NBL Division 2 Men’s league table with a 75-92 away win over Thames Valley Cavaliers on Saturday evening in Uxbridge.

Crusaders jumped out to the early lead, and despite being let down by a poor third quarter, extended the lead in the final period for a comfortable margin – handing Thames Valley their first defeat of the season.

Amin Adamu led Crusaders with 23, John Shodipo had 19, whilst Eytle-Rock finished with 17.

“I thought we good a really good job gutting out a win,” said Kent Head Coach Lloyd Gardner.

“The effort was pretty good physically from us. It wasn’t a beautiful game from us but we did what we had to to win. We played hard on the defensive end, we made it difficult for them, so yeah it was pleasing.

“It’s a very difficult gym, they’re a super talented team. They’ve got a couple of very good high level players, some of the best players in the league, so for us to go there and get a win, especially by the margin we did, serves us well fro the head to head record, because I’m sure Thames Valley will be towards the top of the league, and obviously we have aspirations ourselves of finishing as high as possible.”

Phil Perre led Thames Valley with 32.

Crusaders will continue the league season on November 26, when they face Ipswich at Brompton Academy (12:30pm tip).