The Kingdom Queens snapped a four-match losing streak with a 44-31 win over the Mpumalanga Sunbirds this morning. The Sunbirds sealed a last-minute victory yesterday against the Diamonds and they were hoping to avoid that pressure going into this game as coach- Thembisile Ngwenya made six changes to her starting seven. Sunbirds Goal Defense- Maryke Coetzee suffered an injury earlier on into the game forcing the coach to make more changes, but the different combinations still didn’t yield any positive results. The Queens capitalized on the Sunbirds inconsistency in every quarter to cement an emphatic win.
The much-anticipated match between the Gauteng Jaguars and the Free State Crinums went in favour of the defending champions following their 42-39 win. A thrilling first quarter ended 12-7 to the Jaguars, Crinums’ shooters- Xandri Fourie and Claudia van den Berg were forced to shoot from far due to the Jaguars tight defense which saw them miss crucial shots. Nonsikelelo Mazibuko boasted a ninety-five percent shooting average at half time to extend the Jaguars lead by eleven goals at half time. The Crinums staged a comeback to win the third quarter and at the end, time wasn’t on their side as they only managed to close the gap to just three goals.
Crinums’ captain- Sikholiwe Mdletshe says the teams’ slow start cost them the game, ‘’We woke up a bit late. It was only in the third and fourth quarter where we started seeing what works and what doesn’t work, which is a bit too late. We let them run with the game from the first quarter and that really hit us hard’’. Mdletshe also commented on their next fixture, ‘’For the next game, our plan is to stick to the game plan from the first second and if it doesn’t work, we need to be able to change it up on court and not wait for the coach to tell us’’.
In the third game, the Eastern Cape Comets caused the biggest upset after beating the Limpopo Baobabs 57-41. The Baobabs were unbeaten coming into this game, but they were stunned by a voracious Comets side who were solid in both their attack and defense throughout. It was the battle of the player of the match recipients, Comets Goalkeeper- Juanita Van Tonder was up against Baobabs Goal Shooter- Muhluri Hlatshwayo but Juanita came out tops as she became the first player to be awarded the player of the match accolade back-to-back.
