15 Apr 2017: Crusaders 54-69 Suns

Anne Pedersen leads Sevenoaks Suns to derby win over Barking Abbey Crusaders, still with a shot at second spot.

WBBL Championship
Barking Abbey Crusaders 54 (21,31,40) (Wilkinson 17, Armanu 12, Whittington 8)
Sevenoaks Suns 69 (15,38,46) (Pedersen 21, Carr 17, Lozzi 12)

Sevenoaks Suns are still in with an outside chance of finishing second in the WBBL Championship table, after overcoming Barking Abbey Crusaders 69-54 in a South East derby, thereby avenging two previous defeats to their rivals in this campaign.

But Suns had to come from behind early on when Savannah Wilkinson scored twice in a 9-3 run to put Crusaders 21-15 up after ten minutes.

And they bounced back in the second stanza, when Renee Busch initially cut the gap with a three-pointer, before a 10-2 surge, Dani Lozzi and Cat Carr scoring four each, gave the visitors the lead at 30-28.

When Lozzi scored another four in a row soon after, to move to 12 first half points, the lead reached 36-27. And it was double-figures immediately after the break as Suns scored the first six points, Anne Pedersen moving ahead of Lozzi, on 13, to cap that run as they held the hosts scoreless for five minutes.

But all of the last five meetings between these teams had been settled by single-digits, and Ecaterina Armanu then hit a three-pointer to spark a run of seven straight Barking points, narrowing the gap to 46-40 as they returned the defensive favour, and held Suns scoreless for an equivalent period of time.

The game was won when Pedersen and Carr opened the fourth quarter with the first two scores for the Suns, and the cushion was double-figures once more, maintained by another Busch triple heading into the final five minutes.

Sevenoaks have now won seven of their last nine games as they seek a highest ever WBBL finish (previous is fifth), led on this occasion by 21 points for Pedersen.