Rebels strong start not enough in quarter final upset
The Essex Rebels Women’s basketball team took to the court late Sunday night in a Trophy quarterfinal match-up against top of the table Sevenoaks Suns. The game began and saw a back-and-forth affair, as the teams battled it out to a 19-19 tie. The second quarter was much the same, with Sevenoaks only just outscoring the Rebels by 2 points to head into the locker room up 39-37 on the home team. Unfortunately for the Rebels, half-time seemed to slow all momentum, as the team struggled to get things going in the third and building themselves a small hole. Despite being down 10 points with 10 minutes to go, the Rebels still fought hard, but two back-to-back three pointers from the Suns put the game out of reach, ending with the home team being knocked out of the Trophy by a score of 86-71.
Head Coach Tom Sadler had this to say about the loss, “I’m gutted for the team. They’ve been working extremely hard and unfortunately, we just had a few too many bad offensive possessions that really let Sevenoaks build a lead and never look back. I thought our first half looked great and our second half is what lost us the game. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if we can put a full 40-minute game together we can compete with the top teams in this league, and I believe we are capable of it. We need to bounce back quick here, take a short rest to try and physically recover and then head up to a very good Nottingham team next week in league play.”
Top Performers Rebels:
Angel Waithe – 24 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals
Claire Paxton – 14 points
Dre Kohlhaas – 10 points, 7 rebounds
Top Performers Suns:
J. Monkana – 24 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists
J. Koppl – 18 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
F. Wurtz – 17 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists
R. Busch – 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists
C. Carr – 10 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists
