11 straight for unbeaten Suns, another weekend double for Riders

Sevenoaks Suns maintained their unbeaten start to the league campaign with a 69-65 victory over defending champions, Nottingham Wildcats, helping them to an 11-0 record.

The home side trailed 63-69 inside the final quarter before putting together a pivotal 13-0 run in a strong finish to secure the win.

Judit Fritz top scored with 18 points, while Cat Carr added 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in the win with head coach, Len Busch, delighted with his side’s effort.

 

“I am very proud of how our team closed out the game against Nottingham,” he declared. “Once again, they came from behind late to win a tough game.

“We knew Nottingham was going to be tough – they are a much better team than their record.

“Cat Carr and Ta’Yani Clark give us a lot of composure late in games and in this one, helped us to play our best basketball of the game on both ends of the floor in the last seven minutes.

“They are real leaders and very important to our success. It’s nice that Judit Fritz is starting to score more points for us – she seems a lot more comfortable.

“Now we have two weeks to review the game and figure out how we can get better before our next game.”

Meanwhile, Leicester Riders kept up the pressure with two more wins on the weekend.

Krumesh Patel’s side edged out Westfield Health Sheffield Hatters with Dee Hayward netting 20 points in the 74-72 home triumph.

Kate Oliver added a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds in the win with the Riders then finishing strong to beat BA London Lions 78-65 the following day with Oliver again posting a double-double.

“It was going to be tough having back to back games over the first two weekends after Christmas,” said Patel.

“The team dug deep this weekend to earn two big wins. We got better in both games as they went on, and produced a great fourth quarter against Barking Abbey that saw many things click for us.

“We hope this will give us a boost going into next week’s game against Cardiff.

“We need to keep improving and holding ourselves to a high level each game so that we can achieve the goals we have set out for the remainder of the season.”

 

Elsewhere, Caledonia Pride claimed their first success of 2018 with a 71-66 win in overtime against Cardiff Met Archers.

Tricia Oakes top scored with 21 points and added 11 rebounds with Sarah Thomson and Rosanna Reynolds also adding double-doubles in the win.

Team Northumbria were guided to an 85-78 success over Durham Palatinates on Sunday by an incredible display from Alison Gorrell as she put up 22 points, 19 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals.

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