Sharp Shooting Suns Prove Costly for Rebels
Having come off of one of the team’s worst performances of the season yesterday, the Essex Rebels Women’s basketball team had to bounce back quickly as they faced top of the table, and currently undefeated, Sevenoaks Suns. While the Rebels came out and competed with much more energy than the previous day’s game, they were unable to close a marginal gap late in the game, and ended up with a loss on the day.
The first half proved to be 20-minutes of exciting basketball, with the Rebels getting out to an early 6 point lead. The game had an intense back-and-forth feel to it, as both teams provided exciting highlights on the offensive end. The lead changed 11 times during this stretch, and unfortunately for the Rebels a mysterious technical foul call, that puzzled everyone on court, stopped all forward momentum and saw Lu Costa have to sit for a stretch in the first half prematurely. Despite realising their mistake and subsequently apologising for the call at half-time the officiating crews decision could not be taken back and the game carried on with the Rebels down 11 entering the third quarter.
The second half continued much the same as the first, with the Rebels coming within 6 points of the Suns with under fifteen minutes to play. However, some sharp shooting by the Suns proved costly for the Rebels as the visiting team went on a 12-0 run and created a gap that the Rebels just could not close the remainder of the game. The final buzzer sounded with the Suns winning 87-71.
Head Coach Tom Sadler had this to say about his team’s performance, “if we are comparing today’s game against yesterday’s it was a completely different team who showed up. Yesterday we were sluggish and were uncharacteristic of our usual selves in every way. Today we were aggressive on offence and got some really great ball movement that allowed us to have good looks at the basket. On defence we had some players really step up and disrupt what Sevenoaks wanted to do. We had some lapses that cost us where long rebounds turned into easy transition baskets for them and Sevenoaks also hit some crucial shots when it mattered most. This performance was a step in the right direction for us in getting back to how we were playing and I hope that the team can see the difference and continue to focus on doing what works for us, all of which is controllable. We’ve got a week to prepare for our last league game now and we need to build on today’s performance to get some momentum heading into the playoffs.”
Top Performers Rebels:
Lu Costa – 18 points, 11 rebounds
Angel Waithe – 15 points, 10 rebounds
Ashleigh Munns – 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Top Performers Suns:
Renee Busch – 21 points
Cat Carr – 20 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists
Janice Monakana – 19 points
Lavinia Da Silva – 14 points, 11 rebounds
The Rebels have one final league game next Sunday at home as they take on the Cardiff Archers. Be sure to tune into the game’s livestream on Youtube and make sure you follow the Essex Rebels across all social media platforms to stay up-to-date on all news, links, and ways to support!
