Rebels on a Roll!
The Essex Rebels Women’s basketball team is on a roll as they captured their third straight win this weekend on the road against Durham. With the victory, the Rebels climb the league ladder and currently sit in third place.
Despite the long bus ride from Colchester to Durham, the Rebels came out with energy and never looked back. Both the defensive and offensive ends of the floor went in favour of the Reblels, as they held Durham to just 26 points at the half and went into the break up by 12. A great effort on the boards allowed Essex to limit Durham’s second chance opportunities and proved to be the turning point in the third quarter. The Rebels held Durham to their lowest scoring quarter (8 points) and went on a run of their own as Ashleigh Munns and Angel Waithe hit some challenging shots. This was aided by captain Andrea Kohlhaas, who is the team’s leading scorer on the season, but proved most valuable going after rebounds on the day, grabbing 12 boards. Durham continued to give it their all and ended the game by scoring 20 points in the final quarter, but coming up short as the Rebels took the win 75-54.
Head Coach Tom Sadler had this to say after the win, “I’ve got to give credit to the team for how they came to play today. You always wonder how a team will respond to a long road trip and they did an amazing job getting each other fired up before the game and throughout all 40 minutes. We emphasised going after rebounds this week in practice and you could see that every single player was doing their job. To out rebound a Durham team with arguably two of the best post players in the league just shows how focus and dedicated to the game plan the girls were. It was also fantastic to see every single player contribute and get a good amount of playing time. Every single one of them is working so hard, so to get the win and have everyone be a big part of it was a great reward for them.”
Top Performers Rebels:
Angel Waithe (21 points, 12 rebounds)
Ashleigh Munns (19 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds)
Lu Costa (15 points, 11 rebounds)
Andrea Kohlhaas (12 rebounds, 5 assists)
Top Performers Durham:
Claire Paxton (13 points, 10 rebounds)
Kara Elderkin (13 points, 10 rebounds)
Goretti Hurtado Barbeito (10 points, 6 rebounds)
The Rebels are back in action next Saturday as they take on the Manchester Met Mystics at home. Cheer on your Rebels by joining the live stream at 3pm – more details on how to support the Rebels on all social media platforms
Photo: Carla Bieg in action against Durham Palatinates. Credit: Mansoor Ahmed
