Rebels win on the road

The Essex Rebels travelled to Durham this past weekend to take on the Palatinates in their fourth championship fixture of 2021/22 season.

The Rebels entered this weekends match up off the back of an impressive 40 point win at home to the Manchester Mystics the previous weekend. While the Durham side fell short to local rivals the Newcastle eagles.

The Rebels came out strong and looked as though they were able to quickly shake out the 5 hour bus ride with quick back to back baskets from Captain Andrea Kohlhaas. But durham quickly responded with a 3 of their own from their lead guard Goretti Barbeito. The hosts quickly upped their intensity, pressing the rebels full court, forcing the visiting team a number of turn overs, while also creating a number of second chance opportunities with some impressive offense rebounding from their newcommers Victoria Natufe, and Elle Hendershot.

Despite the Essex side building a lead, the Rebels inability to look after the basketball, and allow Durham easy second chance opportunities kept the game close in the first half. The home side were able to create an additional 24 possessions in the first half of the game, but were only able to convert these opportunities in to 4 points. The Essex Rebels entered in to the half time Break with a 15 point lead. 41- 26.

It was clear the Rebels had refocussed during the break, as they were able to Limit Durhams offensive rebounding, and had adjusted slightly to their full court pressure. This effort in the second half was led by Claire Paxton the former Durham Palatinates star, and Rebels newcommer Claire who made an impressive return to the court she had played on for the previous two seasons with 11 Points, 11 Rebounds and an impressive 7 Assists, while her front court partner Lucreazia Costa added 18 points of her own, grabbing 10 Rebounds, and dishing out 5 Assists.

The Rebels were able to close out the game 81-58, making them 2-2 for the season, while Durham are now 1-5.

Head coach Tom Sadler had this to say ” We said to our players in the lead up to this game, it will come down to the simple things, taking care of the ball, boxing out, and being ready to play. I think Durham are a good young side, that play hard for 40 minutes and dont stop playing until that final buzzer. You have to stay focussed and compossed against a team like this, becuase they will hurt you if you dont. The first half showed that, but i think we responded in the second half, and were able to clean up a lot of those mistakes and were able to put the game away. This is not an easy place to come and play the travel alone in one day can put you on the back foot, and despite our errors in the first half im pleased with how the team were able to get it done today”

Top Perfromers:

Essex Rebels

Lucrezia costa 18 Points, 10 Rebounds, 5 assists

Andrea Kohlhaas 15 Points

Claire Paxton 11 Points, 11 Rebounds, 7 Assists

Ashleigh Munns 11 Points

Durham Palatinates

Elle Hendershot 21 Points, 17 Rebounds

Goretti Hortado Barbeito 12 Points 7 Rebounds

Victoria Natufe 9 Points, 11 Rebounds