Crusaders find balance in dominant TBL win

TAYLOR Valach and Morgan Prentice led the Crusaders to another surging TBL win.

Taylor Valach (pictured with the Mountaineers) of the Crusaders. Photo: Kevin Farmer

BASKETBALL: The Crusaders have maintained their strong Toowoomba Basketball League form with another decisive victory.

Led by the potent scoring attack of Morgan Prentice and Taylor Valach (both 16 points), the Crusaders cruised to a 60-40 defeat of Team Mamba.

Coach Lisa Salmi said she is pleased with the cohesion her team has been able to play with in recent weeks.

“We’ve got a good range of different players that are fast, can score and play in the post,” Salmi said.

“It works well for us, having the speed of Kaila (Gabriel) and Morgan, but also Taylor who can rebound and pass in the full court. You can’t have runners in the fast break if you don’t have someone that can pass it down the court.”

They sit in second behind the Chiefs, who remain in top spot courtesy of a 66-52 win over The Aces.

Brittany Hayes and Kirby Harley led the way in scoring with 14 each for the Chiefs, while Despena Dickerson shot the lights out again for The Aces, dropping 27 points.

In the men’s division, the Dragons went one step closer to securing top spot at the end of the regular season with a crushing 95-74 defeat of the Breakers.

It was the third-successive win for the ladder leaders, with Daniel Sims again proving unstoppable.

The Mountaineers guard had his third-straight game of more than 30 points, dropping 33, including 11 free throws as he showed his aggressive best.

Cameron Weber had 22 in a winning effort, while Deng Makuach and Kobi Hinch were the leaders for the Breakers with 19 apiece.

The A Team made it back-to-back wins to move into second spot after downing Toowoomba City Lightning by 78-66.

A 13-4 in the final quarter run helped extend the lead to double digits, enough to see The A Team home.

Noah Silcox-Smith had a season-high 22 points in the win with Joe Johnson again firing with 20, while Jason Spurgin had 18 for the Lightning.

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