WNBL Round Up - Week 12 - Hoopsfix.com

WNBL Round Up – Week 12

This weekend saw 6 WNBL fixtures taking place, with four teams facing double header weekends. Loughborough, Nottingham and Sevenoaks split their games, recording a win and a loss, whilst Cardiff Archers took two wins from the weekend.

Loughborough Riders won at Manchester but couldn’t keep it up at Sevenoaks on Sunday. Nottingham Wildcats started their weekend with a home win against Barking Abbey, but lost at home to Cardiff on Sunday. Sheffield Hatters had little to worry about, taking a comfortable win at home against Sevenoaks, who then bounced back on Sunday when they recorded their first win of the season against Loughborough.

Mystics lost their second consecutive league fixture this weekend with a 52-72 loss at the hands of Loughborough Riders. The game was described by both Head coaches as a ‘game of two halves’ in which both teams lacked consistency throughout the game.

The first quarter started with a quick 9-0 run from the Riders which was immediately answered by the home side, who led by 7 after the first quarter. Loughborough then regrouped quickly, beginning to close the margin Manchester had created in the first quarter as the Mystics led by 2 at the half.

Loughborough came out of the half with a point to prove, keeping the Mystics to just 3 points whilst converting 18 points. The Riders never looked back and won the game convincingly after a shaky first half.

Mystics coach Rob Fairley commented: “It was a game of two halves. We probably had our best half of the year, then possibly our worst second half. I was however pleased with the way our undersized team played against much bigger opponents”.

Bratka led the Riders with 21 points and 12 rebounds, followed by 15 points and 6 assists. Amy Browne led the Mystics with 15 points and 8 rebounds, with Nicolette FongLyewQuee finishing with 9 points and 8 assists. Hannah Alty contributed 9 points for the Mystics.

Nottingham Wildcats took on Barking Abbey in their first game of the weekend, where a strong second half performance and a 35 point contribution from Adrien Ritchie ensured them the win.

Barking Abbey began well, forcing a tight first half where they achieved a 3 point lead, putting them in a promising position going into the third quarter.

However The Wildcats were soon to respond and a 23 point third quarter allowed them to take the lead, building on it in the fourth and leading them to the win. Scannel added 15 for the Wildcats. Mary Durojaye led Barking Abbey with 11, followed by 9 from Joseph and McDerment.

Sheffield Hatters put on an impressive performance in their game, with a 34 point win against Sevenoaks Suns. The Suns only trailed by 10 at the half, however the Hatters outscored the Suns 15-3 in the third, leading to a 22 point fourth quarter.

Sevenoaks were unable to claw back the damage made by the Hatters in the third quarter and Hatters took the win, taking them to 8-1 in the league. Helen Naylor finished the game with 24 points, whilst Gandy added 19. the Sun’s Catherine Carr finished with 12, followed by 10 points from Green.

Cardiff Archers began their winning weekend with a tough home game against 3-7 Team Northumbria. Archers took a narrow upper hand in the first quarter, however Northumbria went into the second quarter performing on both the offensive and defensive end, keeping the home side to 15 whilst converting 23.

The second half began with a narrow 4 point lead for Northumbria and a very competitive third quarter, with both teams battling to maintain the lead progressing into the fourth. The last quarter left everything to play for, and whilst neither team could replicate the higher scoring first half, Cardiff managed to keep Northumbria to just 10 fourth quarter points whilst managing to convert when it mattered.

Time ran out for Northumbria and Cardiff won the game by 4 points. Jenkins led all scores with 27, with team mate Stef Collins adding 15. Northumbria’s top scorers were Spotwood (22), Hulme (12) and Davison (11).

Cardiff Archers managed another 4 point win on Sunday when they traveled to Nottingham to play the Wildcats. Cardiff set the tempo for the game, taking a 21-13 lead in the first quarter and continuing to build the lead going into half time. The second quarter did not run quite as smoothly as the first for the Archers and the Wildcats managed to chip away at the lead throughout the second half, led by another stand out performance from Adrian Ritchie.

Despite winning both the third and fourth quarter, the Wildcats were unable to edge the lead and lost the game by 4. Ritchie led all scores with 29, followed by 13 from Bicane and 12 from Prior. Butters led the Archers with 2, followed by Ravn (16) and Jenkins (15).

Sevenoaks took an unexpected win when they hosted the 7-3 Loughborough Riders. The low scoring game saw the scoreboard at just 7-9 after the first quarter. The second quarter showed some improvement with the home side dropping 21 points, whilst Loughborough continued to struggle offensively. the start of the second showed both teams struggling to put points on the board, and the third ended in Sevenoaks advantage at 36-30.

Both teams had a much better fourth quarter, however Loughborough uncharacteristically never seemed to get into their usual offensive flow, and suffered their third loss of the season 57-47. Loughborough Coach Matt Harbour commented on the surprise loss:

“I am still not exactly sure how we performed so poorly, but we just couldnt buy a basket. I’m disappointed with our lack of consistency, but hopefully this will serve as a reality check for our group. We started slowly and we just never found a way to ignite our play. To give Sevenoaks credit they played really well and hit big shots. We just didn’t make anything from outside and struggled to find consistent ways to score”.

Carr led the Suns to their first league victory with 21, followed by Lewis with 13. Bratka led the Riders with 18, whilst Rheanne Bailey added 12.

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