COVENTRY CRUSADERS VS DURHAM WILDCATS
LONDON LEOPARDS VS COVENTRY CRUSADERS
Venue: Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre, Fairfax Street, Coventry.
When: Saturday 12 February 2011
Tip Off: 7:30pm
Competition: National League Division One
By Adam Manning, Crusaders Press Officer
Coventry Crusaders begin their double-header weekend at home to play off rivals Durham Wildcats this Saturday evening looking for their third straight victory for the first time in two years.
Roger Payne’s men then travel down to the capital to face third-placed London Leopards (4.00pm) less than 24 hours later to play one of their games in hand.
The club’s fortunes on the court have suddenly changed as back-to-back league wins have lifted the club off the bottom of National League Division One and just two wins off the play-off places.
And Crusaders captain Michael Gayle, who grabbed the winning points in their recent 78-77 victory over Leicester Warriors last weekend, is eyeing double revenge for the embarrassing defeat to league newcomers Durham last November, and the over time loss to Leopards three weeks ago.
“Durham play the best team basketball in the league” said Gayle. “They haven’t got one extremely great player who can do everything, but they’re a strong team.”
“They beat us last time by twenty points which was a little bit embarrassing, but we’ve got a lot more plays now and we’ve added Casey Crawford which they haven’t seen.”
And Sunday’s game versus Leopards provides an opportunity for Gayle and his team- mates to banish more bad memories.
“[Last time] we lost to them in over time and that game we should have won. Apart from the Durham game we’ve given other teams the confidence to think that they’re better than us. And I think if we go in with the same mentality [as the previous two games] but tune the little problems what we’ve got with defence, then I think we can come away with two wins.”
Meanwhile head coach Roger Payne will be without two familiar faces this weekend as 6ft 5 in power forward Dave Edden has left the club due to work commitments, whilst forward Simon Payne is in Barbados, and centre Rob Clarke remains out due to a knee injury.
Tickets for Saturday’s clash with Durham at the Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre are £2 for adults and £1 for children, students and OAPs, tip off is 7:30pm.
Team expected to face Durham Wildcats and London Leopards: 4 Michael Gayle (captain); 5 Jack McDonald; 6 Leigh Cascoe; 7 Roy Owen; 8 Siman Stewart; 9 Damilola Fakunle; 11 Robin Hall; 12 Casey Crawford; 13 Pierre Henry-Fontaine; 22 Daniel Belgrave; Louie Romero; Louis Young; Alex Banfield.
COVENTRY UNIVERSITY VS WARWICK UNIVERSITY
By Adam Manning, Crusaders Press Officer
Venue: Coventry University Sports Centre, Whitefriars Street, Coventry.
When: Sunday 13 February 2011
Tip Off: 1:30pm
Competition: Annual Varsity series between Coventry & Warwick University
Coventry University basketball head coach Brian Porth says he will be using this Sunday’s Varsity match against Warwick to prepare for the side’s BUCS (British University & College Sports) Championship cup tie versus Premier League outfit Oxford later this month.
Coventry head into the game full of confidence after a magnificent league campaign in BUCS Midlands Division 1A saw them finish second with eight wins and two losses.
Last year’s Division 1A champions Warwick will have a point to prove this Sunday, as they finished one place behind Coventry in third and will also want to go into their National Trophy cup game with University of Manchester on a high next Wednesday.
Both sides have one win apiece against each other in the league this season, and Porth knows exactly what to expect from them.
“Playing teams three times is always different because you start to get used to each other, and dislike each other a little bit more” said the 25-year-old American.
“From us I expect the same things regardless of who we’re playing. Warwick is a team that work hard to try and get good shots. They’ve got a couple of foreign guys who are able to shoot well from the perimeter: one’s a big guy and one is a wing player.”
“So it takes a lot of focus on our end defensively to pay attention to know where everyone on the court is all of the time. To know who you’re guarding, know that if you’re guarding one of the guys that’s able to shoot really well not to let them catch with space. Always close out well, so if you’re at the game you’ll hear me call ‘close out’ quite a bit.”
“But then they also have a point guard who does a really good job of breaking a defender down and drawing more defenders towards him to set up those open shots, so it’s about playing defence as a team.”
Both sides are reeling from the consequences of this year’s game being moved to the weekend, as top scorers from Coventry and Warwick are both unavailable for the game. Coventry’s top scorer Franco Kouagnia and ex-Crusaders Stephen Danso are both playing for their National League teams, whilst Warwick talisman Tadas Jonusaukas has family commitments.
The game is being played at the weekend as part of the tournament’s format change which has transformed from a single day tournament to over six weeks in length, and will conclude with a football final on Wednesday 16 March.
Despite the timing of this fixture, Porth sees it as the perfect opportunity to prepare other members of the squad for their important championship cup game at Premier League outfit Oxford on Wednesday 23 February.
“It’s going to be good for us to get some of the other guys some work which will prepare us for a really important game coming up. So while we want to win this, we’re going to be doing a lot of things to set us up for a really important game coming up.”
Tip-off at the Coventry University Sports Centre is 1:30pm, and tickets are available for Coventry University and Warwick University students only, which for Coventry students can be purchased at the Students’ Union or online by clicking here.