Kent Crusaders kept their undefeated record intact with an 86-79 win over London Greenhouse Pioneers on Saturday afternoon at Barking Abbey Leisure Centre.

Behind 23 points from John Shodipo and 22 from RJ Eytle-Rock, BA led by as many as 17 in the fourth quarter before a comeback in the final minutes from Greenhouse saw them close the deficit.

It was Greenhouse’s first defeat of the NBL regular season.

“I thought it was another decent performance from us,” said Head Coach Lloyd Gardner after the game.

“We played pretty well for stretches, defensively I thought we were better today. The concern that we spoke about after the game with the guys, is it’s another game where we’ve been up and feel like we’re comfortable but still allow the other team to hang around and make it close.

“We need to learn to finish games, second half we got a bit sloppy as the game went on, and someone’s gonna come back and hurt us, luckily it wasn’t today against Pioneers. I feel like we’ve gotta keep pushing, keep improving, but obviously we’re delighted with the win.”

Amin Adamu was the only other player in double figures for Kent, with 13 points, whilst Pioneers were led by 24 points from Luca Piccini.

Crusaders moved to 4-0 on the season, as they continue to hold on to the top spot in the league table.

 

Kent Crusaders cruised to their second straight win against Division 1 opposition in the National Cup with a comfortable 94-67 win over Essex Leopards on Sunday afternoon at Brompton Academy.

Crusaders held a 21 point lead at halftime and cruised the rest of the way, as the victory could leave them as the only team from a lower division in the quarter final round.

“The Cup seems to bring out the best of us,” said Head Coach Lloyd Gardner after the game.

“In the last round I thought that the Lituanica game was our best performance of the year, and today I think we went one better against Leopards. I was just really pleased with our combined efforts at both end of the floor.

“We set our stall out defensively very well early on, We’ve got a lot of athletes, we play a nice speed offensively, and we were able to get into a rhythm in the first half off the back of some great defence to get ourselves a commanding lead.

“I was really pleased with the performance today and it has been a really good weekend for us.”

RJ Eytle-Rock led Crusaders with 22 points, followed by Amin Amadu with 13 and Dan Akin with 12.

The victory sees Kent advance to the quarter finals of the National Cup, where they will face Reading Rockets on November 20.