Rebels Unable to Tame Lions
The Essex Rebels WBBL championship campaign continued this past weekend as they played host to Euro Cup side The London Lions in a very exciting match up.
For the London side it was a quick turnaround, having played and won in Germany on Thursday evening against German side Keltern.
The home side looked composed and in control to start the game with both Teams battling back and forth for a lead. The first quarter saw end to end action with the Rebels trailing by 5 heading in to the second quarter.
The lions appeared to take control in the second quarter heading in to the half leading by 15 points. The Rebels started slow in the third quarter turning the ball over a number of times allowing the lions to score some easy baskets and extending their lead to 17 points.
The Essex side refused to give up, lead by a number of big baskets from their shooting guard Ashleigh Munns who went on to lead all scores for the game with a massive 26 points shooting 7/8 Threes.
This Energised the Rebels both ends of the floor and allowed them to claw back the game to get it within Ten points with just under a minute to play.
However The London Lions remained in control under the guidance of their floor general Kennedy Leonard who was able to keep them poised under the Rebels full court pressure.
The Lions closed out the game 82-72.
Despite the final score line it was another great display of women’s professional basketball and live entertainment experienced by hundreds of fans in the Essex sport arena.
Head coach Tom Sadler had this to say after the game “The team responded this week after last weeks defeat against Sevenoaks, I needed to see that we can compete and play with the energy and effort that’s required to be the team I believe we can be in this league, Lions are a class side, credit to them on the win and despite being league rivals what they are doing for the sport and the womens game in this country is remarklable, I feel like theyre really driving change for the better. For us we need to build of this performance, its been the first time so far we have had everyone back playing, and we did some really good things out there. Still a lot more work to do”
The Rebels Return to action Saturday the 30thOctober as they host Manchester Mystic at 5pm in the Essex sport Arena. Tickets are on sale now at Eventbright.
