Ipswich Basketball’s Senior Women moved to 10-4 with a comfortable 81-63 win over the Worcester Wolves on Saturday. The win keeps Ipswich in fourth place in WNBL Division One, very much in amongst it, in terms of the chasing pack sitting immediately behind runaway league leaders City of London Academy.
Ipswich used a dominant 30-15 first quarter to establish a level of comfort that they did not relinquish for the rest of the game, allowing Coach Drane to rotate his bench, giving valuable extended playing time to his bench while keeping a healthy lead for the whole game.
A balanced Ipswich attack was led by Liv Forster’s eighteen points, with Cameron Taylor-Willis and Saruna Gudza both adding twelve, and Ava Battese 11. The only negative for Ipswich was a nasty cut to the head sustained by young guard Alice Fallon, who had made a great start, but had to sit out much of the game.
The win sees Ipswich staying in fourth place, but with Loughborough, Thames Valley and Solent all dropping games over the weekend, it means that with eight games to play, a good run of form could see the Suffolk side make a run at a higher playoff seed. However, the next three games are going to be a real test, with a long trip to Bristol (who beat Ipswich two weeks ago) before playing Loughborough the next day, and again the following weekend. The next fortnight will give not only just Ipswich, but several teams in WNBL Division One a better idea of what their goals are for the final month of the season.
“It was nice to get out there and get a win, but we know that next weekend is going to be a real test. Bristol’s record doesn’t really tell you how good they are and Loughborough are always a tough team – we will take one game at a time” Said Ipswich Head Coach Nick Drane.
Ipswich rounded off a solid team performance 81-63 and are back at Copleston next Sunday when they host Loughborough Riders at 3pm.
Top Scorers:
Liv Forster 18, Saruna Gudza 12 & Cameron Taylor-Willis 12.