Sep 05: Westside come from behind to conquer the Crusaders in National Cup

Westside got back into action on Saturday in an explosive encounter with East Kent Crusaders in the First Round of the National Cup at the Kensington Leisure Centre. An earlier than usual start to the season this year meant that Westside were missing several key members most notably their post players, only suiting up 7 and this was a major worry against an East Kent team that has retooled adding a 6'10 and 6'7 post players to their lineup and with a full squad of 12.

At the start of the first quarter, the rust was clearly evident as East Kent, eager to avenge previous defeats jumped on the home team, exerting great pressure and causing several turnovers which lead to easy scores for a 22 - 3 lead after 6 minutes. After a couple of timeouts by Coach Lamptey, Westside began to settle a little but East Kent kept the barrage going particularly with three pointers and the score after the first quarter was 32 -14 to the visitors. They continued their hot shooting into the second quarter to open up a 21 point lead but a change in the Westside defensive alignment began to pay dividends and manage to hold them to 16 points in the quarter. On offence, Matthew Williams was showing that he had some shooting prowess as he scored 11 points in the quarter as the score was 48 - 37 to East Kent.

At halftime, Coach Lamptey changed alignments again to slow down the oppositions fast break and improve the offensive efficiency and the team responded with another improving quarter to reduce the defict to 3 points going into the fourth quarter. Once again, East Kent scored first as the lead went back to seven points but that would be the last points they would score for the next six minutes as Westside put the defensive clampers on to score 19 consecutive points to open up a 12 point lead with three minutes remaining. East Kent hit a three and some foul shots to close to within seven but that’s as close as they got as Westside eased out the final minutes to record an unbelievable comeback victory.

The games leading scorers were Ola Odigan with 27, Daniel Worku with 24 and Patrick Omigie with 20 points and 20 rebounds. Coach Frank Lamptey commented "This victory shows the character of our team and shows we are a team with a lot of heart who never give up. With only 7 players and one post player who is 6'4 , apart from the first 8 minutes of the game we showed a lot of good qualities which will stand us in good stead for the rest of the season. Patrick Omigie was unbelievable as he dominated their taller fronline on the boards'. This victory means that Westside travel to Worthing in two weeks to take on Division 1 side, Worthing Thunder, in the second round of the National Cup.

On Saturday, Westside start their Division 3 campaign with another home fixture against East Kent Crusaders. This promises to be another explosive affair as the team from Canterbury seek revenge. The match tips off at 4pm at Kensington Leisure Centre and entry is free for supporters.

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