Nottingham Wildcats have jumped back up into a share of the WBBL Championship Play-off spots with a dominant 102-79 upset win over second-placed Sevenoaks Suns, putting a big dent in their visitors’ title hopes with just a second league defeat of the campaign.
Despite the form book – Wildcats have lost three in a row at home while Suns had four wins on the bounce – the hosts scored the first five points of the game and raced into a 14-2 start as Imani Whittington and Brooklyn Pannell hit three-pointers and all five starters got on the scoreboard early on. Wildcats poured in 30 first-quarter points, with Jahnae Gyles scoring 10 on perfect shooting.
A 7-0 start to the second stanza made the score 37-15 on another Pannell triple as they showed no signs of slowing, reaching 62-37 at the break on a Shaunay Edmonds buzzer-beating triple. By halfway, Nottingham had scored more points than Sevenoaks – the league’s best defence – concede on average in a full game, as Praise Egharevba reached a half time double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds.
There was no way back for the visitors, as the closest they could get was 19 points midway through the third quarter until Gyles responded with seven in just over a minute and the margin stayed above 20 for the remainder.
Nottingham, themselves the fourth-best offence in the WBBL, went through the century for the second time this season and finished with 12 made three-pointers at 46% and 19 fast break points, led overall by 28 points from Gyles. Egharevba finished with 17 points and 20 rebounds, including a troublesome eight on the offensive glass as Wildcats finished with 13-second chance points.
Wildcats now move level with Durham Palatinates in eighth place with a 9-12 record and a home game against Durham next up on Saturday.
Nottingham Wildcats 102-79 Sevenoaks Suns (30-15, 62-37, 81-61)
(Wildcats – Gyles 28, Pannell 25, Egharevba 17; Suns – Monakana 23, Busch 14, Carr 14)