The Medway Park Crusaders failed to get off to a winning start in 2012, with an 83-70 loss on the road to the Derby at the weekend.

Trailblazers. Derby, who now sit second in EBL Division One proved to be the stronger team after the Christmas break on Saturday evening, 7 January, leading the game from start to finish. Luton-born 6’2 guard Rishi Kakad, was the stand out player for Derby, hitting 28 points on the night.

Adrian Fenyn top scored for the Medway side with 19, followed closely by Steve Vear with 16 and Joe Schow with 14. Crusaders Coach, James Vear, said after the game:

“We never really got going tonight, we looked a little bit rusty and made bad decisions at crucial times in the game.

“Don’t take anything away from Derby they were excellent tonight. Their guards are probably the best we have played all year and they can hurt you in so many different ways.”

Despite the festive respite, both teams came out firing in the first quarter. Kakad started by hitting a few outside shots and the Crusaders struggled to cope with another Trailblazers guard Martin Gayle, who hit 16 on the night. Derby took the first 24-19.

The second quarter was much like the first, with both teams keeping up the high tempo. Derby extended their lead to double digits, but after a time-out from Vear, the Crusaders pulled the lead back to eight points, with Captain James Harris hitting a three-pointer on the sound of half time, to make the score 45-37.

After the break, the Crusaders came out flat, and the Trailblazers capitalised on this in the early minutes, knocking down some easy shots. Vear was forced to call another time-out and after rallying his team, they went on 8-0 run to close the gap to nine points. Although they started to play better defence, holding Derby to just 15 third quarter points, they only scored 14 themselves.

Derby went into the last 10 minutes 60-51 up. Medway started the fourth quarter badly and a quick 8-1 burst from the hosts, put the game beyond a Crusaders comeback.

The final score read 83-70, but despite the loss Coach Vear was pleased with his team’s efforts. He said: “I am still happy with the way we fought back at times and we never gave up.  We will have a good week at practice and I am sure we will be back to the level we were before Xmas next week.”

The game also saw some new Crusaders records being set. JP Dimandja moved into fifth for all-time career points for Crusaders (with 798), and Steve Vear moved into third for career assists (with 131) – surpassing Robbie Parker’s record of 128. The Medway Crusaders take on the Westminster Warriors next Saturday, 14 January at 5pm. Westminster sit bottom of EBL Division One, having lost 9 out of their opening 10 games. These include a 110-73 drumming two weeks ago by the Bradford Dragons, and a losing start to 2012 at home to the Bristol Academy Flyers (65-86).

Report by Nick Moore

Picture by Cesar Velasco