After last week’s impressive comeback win away at Bournemouth, East London Women’s first team were back playing in front of their noisy home crowd looking to register their first home win of the season.
Solent’s Hot Start
Unfortunately, Solent had other ideas and after opening the scoring with a three pointer they then raced into an early 10–0 lead. A lead they would comfortably hold on to for the entirety of the game.
During the first quarter East London struggled to find a shooting rhythm, scoring just one of their first six field goal attempts. This theme would continue all game as their shooting was not half as accurate, reliable or match winning as against Bournemouth a week prior.
Hustle Hard
Although the first quarter’s 19-2 scoreline may suggest otherwise, East London did attempt to hustle hard when out of possession. Amina Amouri and Amanie Emmanuel in particular were both fighting for loose balls, getting in the faces of the opposition and linking up well when attacking but with little reward.
A more aggressive, faster and vocal unit came out for the second quarter, emphasised by a solid block from Nikita Lopez and strong rebounding from Emmanuel in an attempt to tighten up the defence. Lopez soon followed her block with a well-timed mid-court steal to break away and add to the scoreboard. Captain Brenda Kipewu joined in on the act with three quick points, before a passage of just over five minutes arrived in which East London’s shooting went astray.
Going into the half East London Women were down 33-11 and despite needing a quick turnaround the third quarter was much like the first, with Solent’s accurate shooting returning and East London being wasteful on offence.
Defensive lapses, coinciding with confident ball handling and clutch shooting from the opposition point guard Taylor Gaffney eventually saw the game finish 71–27 to Solent.
Getting back to work
After the match East London’s captain Brenda Kipewu admitted “their (Solent) accurate shooting had us working hard but we have to work harder. Our fitness let us down today”.
Looking ahead to the next game away to Cardiff Women’s first team on November 10th, Kipewu stressed “Were going to get back to work and believe in ourselves!”.
East London match day squad:
#4 Brenda Kipewu, #5 Kaitlann Mahangoo, #7 Jessica Beeler, #8 Amina Amaouri, #9 Nikita Lopez, #10 Shayanne Douglass, #11 Jadzea Quinn, #12 Esther Alake, #13 Amanie Emmanuel, #15 Yasmine Doukkali
