Crusaders struggle away from home

Both the Central Coast Crusaders men’s and women’s squads struggled against the Sea Eagles away from home on Saturday, May 5.

The women got things started at 3pm against an undefeated Sea Eagles side hungry to continue its hot start to the season.

The Sea Eagles finished in first place last year before losing in the grand final to the Norths Bears and are clearly eager to remedy that with how they’ve played so far this season.

The Crusaders were seemingly unphased as new stars Leilani Mitchell and Mikaela Dombkins slipped right into the Crusaders gameplan without a hitch.

It was a fantastic contest in the opening half with no more than five points separating the two teams at any point as the home team closed out the first half with a 41-39-point lead.

It was the third quarter where things fell apart for the Crusaders offensively as they only managed to put up 10 points and the Sea Eagles finished with a comfortable 82-68 win for the home fans.

Despite Captain Jasmine Forcadilla’s 27 points with 5/9 shooting from behind the three-point line, the Crusaders couldn’t get the job done on the road.

The women sit at fifth on the ladder.

In the men’s game at 5pm, home team Manly were eager to continue their hot start to the season against the Crusaders who are 1-1 on the road so far.

The first half was a tight one with the home team taking a four point lead at the end of the first quarter before the Crusaders outscored them 23 to 13 to take a 46-40 lead going into half time.

Starting centre Seth Chapman had some injury concerns in the opening seconds of the game which prompted new signing Chan Nai to take over and he did not disappoint, dropping 20 points on an efficient 7-14 shooting during his time on the court.

Nai’s 20 combined with Robbie Heath’s 29 was not enough to get the job done as the game swung drastically Manly’s way.

The Sea Eagles outscored the Crusaders 64-35 in the second half to seal a comfortable 102-81 win.

The Crusaders men drop down to 12th on the ladder with a record of 3-4 as the season approaches the quarter-way mark.

The Crusaders host another Canberra team this Saturday, May 11, at Breakers Indoor Sports stadium with the men up first at 5pm against the Canberra Gunners, followed by the women, who host the Nationals at 7pm.

Stefan Kataric