As the basketball season comes to a close, the Central Coast Crusaders are gearing up for their final game at home for the year and it’s a special one.
This Sunday, July 9, at Breakers Indoor Sports Stadium at Terrigal the Crusaders host in the Inner West Bulls in the NBL1 East First Nations Round where they’ll be donning their newly unveiled jerseys inspired by the artwork of Bundjalung woman Jenni McEwen.
Before the Crusaders host the Bulls, they’ll make their way to Bankstown to take on the Bruins in this weekend’s double header.
Tipping things off first at 2pm are the women, who look to keep their post-season dreams alive in a must win matchup against the 10th placed Bruins and fortunately they’ve got momentum on their side after a convincing 73-47 win over the Hills Hornets.
It was Jasmine Forcadilla and Maddison Penn who got the job done against the Hornets, combining for 42 points with Penn sinking an impressive 6 of 10 from behind the arc.
The men take the court at 4pm in a favorable matchup themselves as it was roughly this time last year that the Crusaders travelled to Bankstown and stole the win on the road off a Hammish Loader buzzer beater.
On to Sunday and the home portion of this weekend’s double header where the women start things off once again against the 13th placed Inner West Bulls at 1pm.
The last time these two teams faced off was at North Ryde, where the home side Bulls came away with a hard fought 73-66 victory over the Crusaders.
But it was the woman in the middle, Nicole Hutchins, who kept it close for the Crusaders, scoring 15 on an impressive 7 of 9 from the field and grabbing 13 rebounds.
Expect the Crusaders to call on her once again.
The situation for the women is a lot less dire but still far from ideal as they failed to gain any momentum after defeating the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles a few weeks ago.
The men have a tougher assignment, squaring off at 3pm against the 14-3 second placed Bulls, who look to close out their impressive season with a win on the road.
The men are looking to recreate Ajay Lawton’s performance last week after he scored 21 points and grabbed five steals in just the first half.
Unfortunately, his reign was abruptly cut short after an untimely hamstring sprain which made it difficult for the Crusaders to close out on the road, going down to the Hornets 73-71.
Lawton’s valiant performance should have breathed some life into the men’s squad as they look to take the win in this special First Nations matchup at home.
The special edition jerseys which the Crusaders will be sporting this Sunday are up for auction with the proceeds going to The Glen Rehab for women to help fund the construction of an outdoor multi-sport facility.
The artwork that inspired the jerseys represents the 12 team members coming together to compete on Darkinjung Country.
Jenni McEwen is a Bundjalung woman of the Northern Rivers in NSW living on Darkinjung country and her practice reflects the language, stories, art, song and dance of her ancestral Elders.
Bidding closes this Friday, July 7, at 4.59pm.
Check out the Central Coast Basketball Website or the Central Coast Crusaders Facebook page for instructions on how to place a bid.
Stefan Kataric