WBBL Cup, quarter-final
Caledonia Gladiators 64-67 Sevenoaks Suns AOT ( 22-15, 35-26, 46-46, 62-62)
(Gladiators: Jones, 22; Handy, 16; Elias, 11 — Suns: Monakana, 23; Bradshaw/Fritz, 11; Busch, 10)
WBBL Cup, quarter-final
London Lions 102-48 Sheffield Hatters (31-12, 58-34, 76-43)
(Lions: Herbert Harrigan/Battle/Beckford-Norton, 14; Murray, 13; Joseph, 11 — Hatters: Murphy, 17; Niang, 12; Campbell/Gayle, 5)
WBBL Cup, quarter-final
Essex Rebels 69-56 Durham Palatinates (22-11, 34-30, 55-38)
(Rebels: Paxton/Munns/Turner, 17; Swart, 13; Naessens/Kohlhaas, 2 — Palatinates: Wayne, 18; Bautista, 13; Elderkin, 10)
WBBL Championship
Oaklands Wolves 79-77 Cardiff Met Archers (29-27, 48-42, 69-59)(Wolves: Smith, 32; Gould, 17; Carrasco-Menendez, 13 — Archers: Hatch, 28; Saiki, 22; Yunker, 9)
Sevenoaks Suns needed overtime to edge Caledonia Gladiators 67-64 in a pulsating WBBL Cup quarter-final at The Peak in Stirling on Saturday afternoon.
Trailing for most of the game, a three from Judit Fritz with a minute remaining sent the game to an extra five minutes; despite Caledonia having two attempts to win, miss its mark.
From there, the Suns outscored their Scottish counterparts 5-2 in a low-scoring overtime period to seal the win with Robyn Lewis’ off-balanced three on the buzzer rimming out.
Janice Monakana paced Sevenoaks with 23 points and nine rebounds, cancelling out Erin Jones’ 22 for Caledonia, with the game leaving the sell-out crowd at The Peak on the edge of their seat throughout.
The early ball movement from the hosts was evident as the Gladiators jumped out to an early 12-4 lead on the back of a 7-0 run, capped by a lay-up from Chantelle Handy.
The Suns fought back later in the period, finding gaps in the paint to get easy scores themselves. But as the quarter wound down, a three from Handy gave the hosts a 22-15 lead.
A lay-up from Araion Bradshaw managed to reduce the deficit to one possession in the early stages of the second for the visitors. Still, Caledonia remained composed at the offensive end and maintained its advantage.
A three-point play from Jones with a minute left in the half gave the Gladiators a 33-26 cushion, and as the half-time buzzer sounded, their lead was nine points.
What was proving to be a topsy-turvy rollercoaster of a game, Sevenoaks made their move in the third period as a quickfire 6-0 run narrowed the gap to 42-38 with 4:21 left.
And the Suns’ persistence paid off with two minutes left as a lay-up from Bradshaw knotted the game at 44-44, and as the third period ended, there was nothing to separate the two teams going into the fourth.
It was physical and intense, but both teams were not feeling the pressure, as both sides were able to execute their offences.
A score inside from Jones with three minutes played in the period gave the hosts a 53-48 advantage, but Caledonia could not move away as Sevenoaks kept the scoreboard ticking from the foul line.
And those free throws were a significant contributor for the Suns, scoring 17 points from the stripe to stay in touch in the final quarter, take the game to overtime – and eventually – the win.
London Lions didn’t need overtime, as they comfortably made the WBBL Cup semi-finals with a 102-48 win over the Sheffield Hatters.
With the game played at Oaklands College instead of the CopperBox Arena, you could have argued that both sides would have struggled to adjust to the different surroundings early on.
However, last season’s quadruple queens didn’t have that issue, racing to a 31-12 lead after one and following that with a devastating 44-14 second half that showcased the Lions at their best, with Sheffield unable to contain them.
Kiki Herbert Harrigan, Ty Battle and Shanice Beckford-Norton led seven London players in double figures with 14 points each, as the Lions shot 57% from the field and dished out 31 assists in an all-around offensive masterclass.
Karly Murphy led the Hatters with a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds, and a perfect 9/9 from the foul line.
Within five seconds of the tip, Battle got the ball rolling for the Lions as they went straight to work on a shellshocked Sheffield team, who missed their opening three-point attempts.
Sheffield, though, got into a groove and took a brief lead thanks to a lay-up from Bre Hampton-Bey as London’s shots were missing their mark.
The positive spell for Sheffield, though, didn’t last long, as the Lions restored their lead from the foul line, and they didn’t trail again.
A bucket from Azania Stewart gave Lions a 22-12 lead with 3:41 left in the first, with back-to-back three-pointers from Holly Winterburn and Kennedy Leonard to follow as London took a commanding 31-12 lead heading into the second.
The lead ballooned to 41-18 in the early stages of the second as Chantelle Charles dished to Beckford-Norton for a three-point play, and despite good patches of play from Sheffield, London were in control at the break.
From there, London went up a gear in the second half, leaving Sheffield for dust as they advanced to the last four.
In Colchester, Essex Rebels needed a solid third quarter to secure a 69-56 win over a stubborn Durham Palatinates side in their WBBL Cup quarter-final.
A closely contested first half was blown open in the third as Essex, who struggled in the second period, began the next quarter on a 13-0 run, 18-0 when you factor the final two scores at the end of the half to put the game out of reach.
In a balanced scoring effort from the victors, Ashleigh Munns, Daniella Turner and Claire Paxton all went for 17 points, with the latter also pulling down 13 rebounds.
Jessica Wayne led Durham with a game-high 18 points.
Signally her intent early, Paxton was deadly from beyond the arc, to begin with, as she hit two early triples, helping Essex to a solid 50% from the field for a 20-7 advantage with 3:39 left in the first period.
Following the long trip from the north-east, Durham struggled from the field as they looked to rely on getting their points from the foul line, but only connected on two of their six attempts, shooting just 26% as the hosts led 22-11.
The Palatinates got over their first quarter blues in the second as a 7-1 start, led by Wayne put the visitors back into contention with Essex missing their first four attempts.
The strong Rebels support inside the Sports Arena sensed nerves in their team as they struggled to get into the sharpshooting style they saw in the first, with Sune Swart keeping the hosts ahead.
Durham, though were persistent, maintaining their presence inside and getting to the foul line. Mixed with a mid-range jumper from Inma Bautista, which narrowed the gap to 29-28 with 2:43 left in the half.
The visitors then went one better and took a brief lead thanks to a score from Elle Hendershot, Durham took a 30-29 lead only for Paxton to quickly restore order.
The Rebels would hang on to lead 34-30 at the half as Paxton – who had 11 first-half points – connected from distance, but the game was firmly in the balance.
It was all about who would make the first move as the game wore on, but as it turned out, the Rebels came into the third, all guns blazing, and despite an excellent final quarter from the Palatinates, their WBBL Cup campaign came to an end.
In the lone WBBL Championship clash, a Cassidy Gould game-winner gave Oaklands Wolves an enthralling 79-77 win over Cardiff Met Archers at Oaklands College.
In a thrilling battle that went down to the final possession, Lauren Saiki split her foul shots with three ticks left, leaving Oaklands with the final possession.
Gould did not disappoint as she calmly drained a mid-range jumper as the buzzer sounded in front of a near packed Oaklands College.
Jorjah Smith led all scorers with 32 points on 12/23 shooting for the Wolves, with Gould tallying 17 of her own.
Having trailed by double-digits heading into the final period, the loss will be a tough pill to swallow for Cardiff, who were led by Shannon Hatch’s 28 points on 50% shooting.
The pace of the contest was frantic to start, with Archers racing out to an early 9-0 lead as the Wolves could not get off the board for nearly two minutes.
The hosts hit back though as the pairing of Smith and Gould gave Oaklands a 17-13 advantage, only to be pegged back by a three-point from Saiki with 4:01 remaining.
From the first ten minutes, an offensive tug of war between Smith and Hatch was unfolding as they scored a staggering 19 and 14 first-quarter points, respectively, with Oaklands leading 29-27 after one.
The visitors got off to a slow start in the second as they relied on getting their points from the foul line with a score inside from Hatch, with more than three minutes played being their first field goal.
Thankfully for Cardiff, Oaklands were a bit cold from the field in a cagey second quarter but still held a 48-42 lead at the half.
It was the third quarter where The Wolves began to sink their claws into the Archers as a bucket under the hoop from Grace George handed them a 55-44 cushion within the opening two minutes.
Cardiff were stunned, needing to find an answer from somewhere as Oaklands’ defence intensified.
The visitors, who trailed by as many as 18 points with 4:23 left in the quarter, were able to scrape it back to 69-59 heading into the fourth and did tie the game with three seconds left but fell victim to a heartbreaking finish.
For Oaklands, though, it was jubilation at the buzzer.
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