City of Birmingham Rockets Women suffered a home defeat at the hands of an impressive Nottingham University Wildcat side on Saturday afternoon.
Our visitors came out of the gate quickly and to great effect, establishing a lead which they would maintain for the rest of the game.
The opening minutes of the game were far more even, however, with debutant Sandra Hewakowska draining an early three to level the scores at 8-8.
Antionette Torgbi levelled the game up once again at ten each on the back of some strong offensive rebounding in the paint to get the second chance points, but Nottingham would pull away after this.
Indeed, our visitors would go on to establish a 29-15 first quarter lead as a result of strong ball movement and efficient offensive sets.
Despite this setback, Sandra continued to impress in the second, fighting off attention from three Nottingham players to convert from close range as we looked to drag ourselves back into contention.
Oliwia Ptaszyk defended well from the front throughout the second, and she was rewarded with a close-range layup after grabbing an offensive board to keep the play alive.
Sandra hit 3 from 4 from the line for the quarter as Nottingham struggled to cope with her constant drives.
A slow second half saw our visitors pull away to establish a more commanding margin of victory.
As such, the fourth quarter was an uphill battle from the start with Coach Peter’s side looking to make a dent into our visitors’ 20-point advantage.
Enkeleda Pashaj added a two before adding another pair from the line as the game entered its final stages, but the damage had long been done.
Nottingham would add to their advantage down the final stretch, eventually running out 35-point victors.