COVENTRY CRUSADERS 78 LEICESTER WARRIORS 77
By Adam Manning
Coventry Crusaders’ offense moved up a gear as they edged Leicester Warriors 78-77 in a thrilling derby game at the Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre on Saturday evening.
Captain Michael Gayle struck the decisive two points with just nine seconds left as Leicester threatened to steal a game that they trailed for the majority.
It was the first time in thirteen months that Crusaders racked up consecutive league wins as Roger Payne’s side continues marching up National league Division One following a poor start to the season that saw just one win from eight league games.
Coventry went into this game buoyed by last week’s 64-76 win at defending champions Derby Trailblazers, and they carried that through into this game as they notched up eleven unanswered points to put Leicester on the back foot in the first five minutes.
Crusaders power forward Casey Crawford, who has top-scored in his sixth successive game, executed five points long with Damilola Fakunle’s four during the opening exchanges to make it 17-4, whilst Siman Stewart used his height to good effect to starve the Leicester forwards.
The quarter ended 24-17 as ex-Crusader Stephen Danso swerved past Coventry forward Pierre Henry-Fontaine in the hole to add to team mate Todd Doyle’s field goal seconds earlier.
The second quarter was a similar affair to the first, as Coventry asserted a ten point lead, only for Leicester to threaten a come back in the late stages.
Coventry’s offense was finally showing signs of clicking into place as Crawford was instinctively on hand to claim a two point rebound, whilst Henry-Fontaine and Fakunle were also clinical lay-ups for two points apiece to make it 30-22 to Crusaders half way through the second.
After Coventry guard Robin Hall’s long ball vision set Crawford up for another field goal at 36-26, the side lost their discipline in the final two minutes as Warriors earned themselves three pairs of free throws.
Fortunately for the home side Warriors only grabbed one point out of six on offer, but yet again Danso was on song just before the buzzer to end the first half at 40-33.
The one hundred spectators packed inside the Coventry Sports Centre were treated to 46 points in the third quarter as Coventry were proving a stubborn outfit to break down.
Leicester managed to get the deficit down to 46-43 with seven minutes on the clock courtesy of three pointers from Doyle and R.Kakad. That was short lived though as Stewart was played into the hole by Gayle, and 6 ft 7 in forward Stewart made the two point shot as he was fouled, awarding Coventry an extra point as he nailed the free throw to take the scores to 51-43.
Doyle provided another late sting in the tale for Crusaders as Crawford and Henry-Fontaine laboured to maintain an eight point cushion.
The Leicester danger man, who has averaged 22.25 points per game for Warriors this season, found his three point shooting range on the buzzer with 15 seconds of the third left to begin the fourth quarter at 62-57.
The fourth saw Karl Brown’s Warriors take the lead in the match for the first time since the opening seconds.
Despite Coventry oozing confidence in their team play as Roy Owen stole the ball to feed Fakunle for two points, Leicester hit back with a vengeance.
Brown’s men went on a 13 point run to take the scores to 69-71 with four and a half minutes of the game left. Hopkins and Kakad produced two clinical perimeter shots as Doyle was the only one able to penetrate Coventry on the inside and draw a foul to add three points of his own to contribute to his game total of 24.
Suddenly it was Coventry who were struggling to claw back a deficit, and despite Henry-Fontaine’s late two points cancelled out through Kakad’s free throws with less than 30 seconds left, Gayle showed his leadership nine seconds from time to drift in from the right channel to launch himself at the basket for two match-winning points to send the Coventry Sports Centre into raptures.
Coventry return to action at the Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre on Saturday 12 Febraury against Durham Wildcats to see if they can make it three wins in a row for the first time since February 2009.
Top scorers
Coventry: Crawford 25; Fakunle 21; Stewart 9
Leicester: Doyle 24; Kakad 23; Hopkins 14
Quarter scores: Q1:24-17 Q2:16-16 Q3:22-24 Q4:16-20