The Nottingham Wildcats and Sevenoaks Suns both enjoyed comfortable wins on Sunday afternoon in their first games of the WBBL Championship, as the Cardiff Met Archers and Newcastle Eagles were both humbled by their respective opponents.
The Wildcats dropped a huge 25 points in the second quarter of their 19-point-margin victory over the Cardiff Met Archers, the same amount of points as their first quarter total and third quarter total combined, with leaders Jasmine Joyner scoring ten in the quarter, Chelsey Shumpert scoring eight and Moa Lundqvist scoring five.
The Met Archers will be encouraged though by Kim Kheing’s ten point performance from the bench – an impressive tally for a player who will be looking to get more opportunities from the start after today.
Just over 150 miles north of Nottingham, the Newcastle Eagles were dismantled at home to the Sevenoaks Suns, largely thanks to a dominating 22-point performance from Catherine Carr, who was just two assists away from a double-double and five rebounds from a triple-double.
Irene Garrido-Perez and Tayani Clark also put up double-digit scoring performances for the Suns, while Eagles sub Mante Kvederaviciute was the only player from the home side to reach double-digits in scoring, putting up an impressive 12 points in just under 14 minutes of game-time.
The results see the Wildcats and the Suns head to the top of the table, but after just three games played overall in the WBBL Championship so far this season, all can change at the summit of the table.
Manchester Met Mystics opened the new WBBL Championship season with a comprehensive 82-56 win over Newcastle Eagles at the National Basketball Performance Centre on Saturday afternoon.
Neither team came into the game on form as both had exited the WBBL Cup in the group stages, while the Mystics were previously winless in three games including a defeat to Newcastle.
But they were fast out of the blocks in this one, pouring in 30 first quarter points and leading 34-20 early in the second as Rheanne Bailey hit 10 early points without missing, including a pair of three-pointers.
After Eagles came back to within two shots, Mystics switched to a defensive clampdown in the second half, starting the third period on a 9-1 run over more than six minutes to send the lead back into double-figures at 55-43. Dominique Allen opened the scoring after the break, and then led the defence with five defensive rebounds and a block in that spell.
Mystics completed an excellent second half by winning the fourth 23-7 – holding their visitors to just 14 second half points – as Helen Naylor and Georgia Jones scored six points each. It was Jones who led the scoring overall with 20 points, adding six rebounds and five assists.
