The opening day of the 2020-21 WBBL season saw convincing home wins for Leicester Riders and Nottingham Wildcats.
Leicester thrashed their visitors Manchester Met Mystics by 21 points as they raced to a 65-44 victory, whilst their neighbours Nottingham managed to pick up a hard-fought 64-51 victory against Newcastle Eagles.
The Riders commanded the first half of their game against Manchester Mystics and were out of sight by half time, as they raced into a 37 point lead in the opening two periods.
The Wildcats had to work a bit harder for their win, as a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter brought some daylight between them and the Newcastle Eagles off the back of Jasmine Joyner’s double double.
Both home teams took advantage of their opponents’ shooting troubles, with the Mystics and the Eagles shooting a lowly 28% and 26% from the field respectively. Joyner’s impressive double-double along with the Riders’ Holly Winterburn leading her team in points, assists and scoring saw two of the league’s brightest sparks lead their teams to important wins to start the season.
