Suns had not played since December 13th opting to pause their season amid COVID concerns. They returned to practice the week before the final and put up a pretty good fight despite the lack of practice and game prep. Suns fell into a deep early hole vs Leicester trailing 21-4. They fought back to trail by 4 at the half. The second half was a pretty good game with Suns trailing most of the way but cutting the lead to 4 points twice late before falling by 11, 78-67. The Suns were led by 25 points from Janice Monakana off the bench.
WBBL CUP GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
The next day the Suns returned to action against Oaklands Wolves and overcame a 5 point deficit with 3 minutes to go to win by 69-62.
To highlight the difficulties of the season, two Suns then came down with Covid, sending the team back into isolation. One quick practice two weeks ago and the Suns took on Manchester Mystics on March 6th at Surrey Sports Park. The team got hot from the three-point line completing 63% of their attempts on the way to completing an 85-59 run out win.
Suns welcomed back Lavinia Da Silva who was playing her first game for the Suns since December 13th. Lavinia had 14 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes. Junior Asha Andrews knocked down 3 three-pointers and Izzy Wood scored her first WBBL points with a late three-pointer. Cat Carr and Ta’Yani Clark both were outstanding in the victory.
Last weekend, Suns travelled to Durham and beat the Palatinates 79-59 and therefore remain unbeaten in the WBBL Championship. In the game, Renee Busch got Suns going early by hitting consecutive three-pointers before Suns started pouring in from everywhere as Cat Carr, Janice Monakana, Asha Andrews, Lavinia Da Silva and Irene Garrido-Perez all connected from beyond the arc. Suns finished the game by hitting as nearly as many threes (14) as twos (16). Renee Busch was leading the Suns with 21 points, shooting 7-10 behind the arc.
As the Suns attempt to catch up with all the games they’ve missed the schedule will get very busy. The team has 16 League games to play in the next 6 weeks. The games are all live-streamed so follow Suns on social media for details each week.