Sevenoaks Suns kept their 100% record going in all competitions at the weekend after they defeated Leicester Riders 71-83 on the road in the WBBL Cup semi-final, reserving their place in the Cup final at the end of January for the first time. They then headed home to face Essex Rebels, and made light work of their opponents, winning 81-45 in the championship.
Sevenoaks are through to the WBBL Cup Final for the first time after beating Leicester Riders 83-71 in a semi-final battle between the league’s top two teams. The Suns will now meet Westfield Health Sheffield Hatters in the Final, to be played at Arena Birmingham on Sunday 27th January.
The game was tied early in the second quarter, but an 11-3 run saw Suns establish a double-digit lead at 44-34 as Janice Monakana scored six points and Jessica Good capped the run with a three-pointer. The lead then peaked in the third at 57-39 on a Monakana basket that ended an early run of 10 unanswered points.
Sevenoaks forced Leicester into 20 turnovers and scored 24 points from those turnovers, while giving the ball up just 10 times themselves. They also nearly doubled their hosts’ points in the paint at 46 compared to 26.
Good posted a big double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds, along with six assists; while Monakana came from the bench to lead the scoring with 21 points in just 21 minutes. Ta’Yani Clark also added 12 assists and five steals. Leading scorers for the Suns were Monakana (21), Good (18) and Cat Carr (15).
WBBL Championship
Sevenoaks then continued their perfect league record with a first win of 2019 as they defeated Essex Rebels at the Sennocke Centre on Sunday afternoon. The Suns backed up Saturday’s Cup semi-final win to move to 9-0 in the championship, while the Rebels are now at 1-10 in their debut campaign.
The Suns set the tone with a dominant opening 10 minutes as they led by 21 and never looked back on their way to another convincing victory with a 27-4 third period further increasing their advantage.
Sevenoaks kept their opponents to two quarters in single figures in points with the Rebels held to 30% shooting from the floor with just one of 13 from three.
Julia Koppl topped the scoring on the day with 15 points, however three other players hit double figures in an extremely balanced scoring attack, while Ta’Yani Clark finished with 10 rebounds, seven assists and five points.
Leading scorers were Koppl (15), Good (13) and Monakana (12).
Coach Busch happy with progress
Head Coach, Len Busch was happy with the progress his team have made in the WBBL Cup, saying: “This is our first WBBL Cup Final appearance and we got there with an all-round team performance in Leicester. Janice [Monakana] is the most valuable player in the league right now, points per minute.”
