It was a disappointing weekend for London Lions' two NBL Division One teams as they both suffered defeats on the road.
The women lost 80-62 at Ipswich while the men's long trip to Newcastle went unrewarded as they went down 102-95.
Nicholle Lavinier led the women's side with 27 points, but only Grace Strickland joined her in double figures, adding seven rebounds and as many assists to her ten points. The league's leading scorer,, Fatmata Janneh suffered with foul trouble all game, leaving after just 14 minutes of action, finishing with eight points and six boards. Ava Battese led the hosts with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Cameron Taylor-Willis had a 13 point, 15 rebound double-double as Ipswich were called for only 14 fouls in comparison to Lions' 25.
Lavinier hit a trey to open the game's scoring but that proved to be London's only lead of the game as Ipswich reeled off 15 straight points. A pair of Lavinier triples broke the run as Lions trailed 16-9 at the first break before Janneh became only their second player to trouble the scorer with the visitors' first points of the second period.
London stayed in the game with a Janneh triple making a three point with seven first half minutes remaining but despite Lavinier adding another pair of treys, the visitors trailed 35-25 going into the half-time break.
A Ruchae Walton triple took the deficit down to eight points midway through the third period and Lavinier's sixth three-pointer made it a nine point game heading into the final three minutes of the quarter, but Ipswich finished strongly with a 6-0 run to lead 55-38 at the final break.
Taylor-Willis converted a pair at the foul line to open the fourth period by Laviner continued her long range onslaught with another pair from beyond the are to make the score 61-45 with six minutes on the clock. Strickland also hit a pair of triples but Lions never go the deficit into double digits as Ipswich closed out the win.
Sunday's action in the north east saw Lions find Newcastle's American forward Ronald Blain in top form as he continued his bid to lead the league in scoring and rebounding with a 25 point, 13 board double-double, adding five assists. But Lions' Elijah Maynard had a fine stat line of his own with 33 points and eight rebounds while Brandon Tchouya had a big 15 point, 16 rebound double-double. Denilson Caschili also finished with 16 points for James Vear's side, with Jase Harrison adding 11 points, five boards and four assists.
Maynard was on fire in the early stages, hitting a pair of jump shots as Lions took a 4-0 lead and then draining a triple to keep them ahead. He took his tally to nine with a couple of free-throws before Tchouya kept Lions within a point with a triple of his own. But that provided to be as good as it got for the visitors in a high-scoring game, and despite Bradley Kaboza hitting a triple, they trailed 26-19 at the first break.
Caschili made it a four point game early in the second period but David Moya hit five straight points and despite Tchoua hitting another trey, Lions struggled to keep the deficit in single figures during the rest of the half as they went into the locker room trailing 50-38.
Five Maynard points kept Lions in the game early in the second half, and Lions stayed in the game without getting any closer than six points, and it took a Caschili triple to cut Newcastle's lead to 77-67 at the final break.
Harrison and Maynard both drained triples as the lead was reduced to seven early in the fourth period, and back-to-back Caschili triples brought Lions within five at 88-83 three minutes into the quarter. A three point play from Maynard with 4:44 on the clock saw Newcastle's lead down to 91-90 but his three-point attempt rimmed out at Brandon Federici hit a big three in transition to put Eagles up by five. That proved to be a dagger shot for the hosts as Lions never got any closer and despite a big triple from Zamoku Weluche the hosts held on for victory.
Coach James Vear admitted it was a frustrating day for his team: "We hot there early but had an issue with the kit so we lost some of the benefit of that" he said.
"It was a very back and forth game, they built a lead but we kept coming back and when we got it down to two we missed couple of wide open threes, I think that was a momentum changer, then Federici hit a big three for them. But they're a difficult team to play against, they play such a unique style it's hard to replicate in practice. It's frustrating because if we'd done a few little things differently we could have won the game."
.jpg)