WBBL Trophy, First Round
Oaklands Wolves 66-76 Cardiff Met Archers (11-18, 36-38, 49-62)
(Wolves – Harrison 18, Leavold 11, Spence 8; Archers – Hatch 15, Jorgensen 13, Kheing 10)
Manchester Met Mystics 74-73 Sheffield Hatters (22-19, 41-37, 58-54)
(Mystics – Allen 20, Jones 18, Thomas-Johnson 14; Hatters – Gayle 25, Naylor 13, Fong Lyew Quee 11)
Nottingham Wildcats 90-83 Gloucester City Queens (19-21, 45-42, 66-61)
(Wildcats – Gyles 19, Nicholas 17, Pannell 15; Queens – Ball 20, Abbott 15, Marques 15)
Newcastle Eagles 59-73 Durham Palatinates (12-8, 27-24, 41-49)
(Eagles – Cipcic 16, Gaynor 10, Fernandez Pardo 10; Palatinates – Lowe 25, Hurtado Barbeito 18, Hendershot 14)
An important game for both teams who feel like they have a month of games ahead of them that can kickstart a surge in form, it was a great battle between Oaklands Wolves and Cardiff Met Archers to commence the day’s action. The hosts struggled to shoot the ball efficiently in the first quarter which gave the visiting Archers a chance to carve out a seven-point lead after 10 minutes.
Lauren Milligan’s Wolves started the second quarter with a 6-0 run to get them back in the mix and, although Met did fight back to stop Oaklands rolling into the lead, Lizzy Harrison and Jocie Leavold’s scoring helped the hosts see their positive start to the quarter through to the interval trailing by only two points.
Archers Head Coach Stef Collins will have been pleased with her side’s start to second half as a 13-6 run put them in a commanding position with momentum on their side, which Met eventually saw through to deliver a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Sara Jorgensen starred for the visiting Archers, alongside club captain Shannon Hatch, as they went on to see out a 10-point victory and a landmark 50th win for their Head Coach, to progress to the WBBL Trophy Second Round.
Given the history between the Manchester Met Mystics and Sheffield Hatters and the epic encounters they’ve had in the past, there was rightly a lot of excitement about today’s second game of the day, and the two sides delivered an epic WBBL Trophy clash.
The Mystics took the slenderest of leads from the first quarter of action and they just about managed to hold onto it all the way through the game behind a double-double from Georgia Jones with 18 points and 10 assists, alongside 20 points from Dominique Allen, despite an incredible performance from Georgia Gayle who was willing the Hatters to take the lead.
Former Mystic Ebony Horton scored two free throws with 30 seconds to go in the fourth to give Sheffield a one-point lead, but a foul by Gayle on Jones at the other end of the floor gave the veteran point guard the chance to retake the lead for Manchester from the line, which she duly took, and the Mystics saw out a one-point advantage to end the game to advance.
The Gloucester City Queens were short-handed as they headed to the Midlands to take on Nottingham Wildcats in their WBBL Trophy First Round clash, but it didn’t stop them putting up a real fight and pushing the hosts all the way in this game.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair as the Queens – without key player Melita Emanuel-Carr – started very brightly and led for large chunks of the opening 20 minutes, before Kenrick Liburd’s side found their rhythm and saw a slender lead through to halftime.
Recent Queens acquisition Carolina Marques impressed with 15 points in the contest, and latest signing Shanice Turner had herself a solid night as well, but Nottingham’s starters put in a collective performance that was very hard for Gloucester to stop once they found their stride, with all five starting Wildcats finishing the game with double-digit scoring totals, seeing out a seven-point win.
In the final game of the day, all eyes were on the Vertu Motors Arena as Abby Lowe returned to the Newcastle Eagles with her new Durham Palatinates teammates for a north-east derby with a place in the WBBL Trophy Second Round on the line.
Two early fouls unfortunately left Lowe sitting out much of the first quarter, however, as the home side led a scrappy first quarter 12-8 at the break and stormed to an 8-0 run at the start of the second, with Durham going scoreless for almost nine minutes in the first half as Chris Bunten’s Eagles built a 17-point lead.
Elle Hendershot had herself a big first half for the Palatinates with five points, nine rebounds and three assists, but it was Lowe that led the visiting side’s fightback as she bagged 10 points in 10 first-half minutes to pull the deficit back to just three points at halftime.
A monster third quarter from Durham saw them outscore the Eagles by 11 to take an eight-point lead into the final quarter, as Newcastle’s eight turnovers in the quarter really handed the momentum to Lee Davie’s side. The visitors saw out the win with a controlled performance in the final quarter to dump the WBBL Cup Finalists out of the Trophy competition at the first round.