The Loughborough Lightning travelled to East London to face the East London Phoenix in a top of the table meeting on the 5th of March. Both sides went into the match with momentum as the Phoenix had won two in a row and the Lightning had maintained their unbeaten run with four wins leading into game-day.
Phoenix On A Roll
The Phoenix side saw this as a revenge match and you could tell by the way they played offensively, Amy Conroy scored the first basket of the game and went on to score 11 of the team’s 17 points in the first quarter. Conversely, Lucy Robinson and Robyn Love carried the load offensively from the start of the game combining for 10 of the Lightning’s 12 points.
The second quarter saw much of the same from the Phoenix for the most part as Alice McHaffie seemed to be growing in confidence offensively, scoring 10 points by halftime with the most shot attempts on the team. However, the home sides 13 point lead slowly began to slip out of their grasp as the Lightning went on a 9-0 run with just over two minutes left in the second quarter. The Pheonix side entered the half with a loud ovation from the home crowd and a 34-29 lead.
Lightning Hit Their Stride
A lot seemed to change in the third quarter, the visitors finally regained their lead from the beginning of the game on a fastbreak bucket from Love as they went up 43-42. Beth Wheeler seemed to establish herself as more of an all-around player in the last couple of games and she showed much of the same in this match as she scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and added three steals to her stat line, keeping the East London side in the game by the end of the third. Both Love and Robinson led their team in this comeback which saw them score 14 unanswered points during the Phoenix’s offensive struggles.
The Lightning entered the final quarter in the lead, 53-46, and never seemed to look back, scoring 71 points, the biggest point total seen this season. Wheeler, from the Phoenix, scored four early points in a row, in an attempt to keep the game close, but in the end, the league favourites got the better of the hosts. The Loughborough side kept clicking offensively but had their first point-less possession since the third quarter with less than seven minutes remaining in the game. Curran Brown remained vocal on the court, with her communication on both sides of the court helping her team show real resilience in this fixture as the home team was unfortunately defeated 71-60 in the end.
Post-Game Comment’s
Amy Conroy remained positive and proud of her team even after a tough defeat as she commented in a post-game interview with the BBC: “I’m really proud of us… it’s just a shame, we did have the lead at one point.”
She added “I love our team and an amazing job to Loughborough”
