City of Birmingham Rockets women continued their winning start to the league campaign with a well-earned win over Nottingham Wildcats as part of a double-header at Nechells Wellbeing Centre on Saturday evening in front of a large, enthusiastic crowd.
Rockets welcomed back Michelle Turner to their squad for the first time since recently becoming a mother. Coach Allen started with Turner, Catarina Seixas, Enkeleda Pashaj, Milly Harrison and Grace Brownell. Birmingham began well, taking a healthy nine-point lead early in the first quarter.
It was Turner who opened the scoring with a classic three from deep, like she’d never been away! Nuri Seyedagha-Calderon was then introduced into the game and added one from the line before Brownell made a neat two from under the basket.
Seyedagha-Calderon was an attacking presence throughout and Nottingham struggled to deal with her aggression on offence. She was again fouled whilst driving to the hoop and added one more from the line to complete a brilliant three-point play.
Although Wildcats had come back into the contest by this point, Seyedagha-Calderon made another layup to end the quarter, putting Rockets back ahead, 11-10.
Nottingham began the second brightly and edged ahead but Harrison quickly regained the home side’s lead with a momentum-shifting jump shot for three before Seyedagha-Calderon added two more.
Seixas was fouled and made both shots from the line, leaving the visitors worrying about growing foul trouble, both individually and as a team.
Mullgrave expertly made a layup and added another from the line to complete a three-point play, assisted by Turner, meaning that Nottingham were forced to call a timeout with only four minutes left in the half and Rockets ahead, 20-15.
Nottingham’s foul trouble continued as Rockets made multiple visits to the free-throw line. Next up was Mullgrave who made one before driving well on the next play, untouched this time, to add another two under the basket.
To their credit, Wildcats hung in there as the clock ticked down and Rockets once again found themselves just one point ahead with the score 23-22 at the half time break.
Harrison started the third with real intent, making two baskets in a row from close range – the latter assisted by Turner.
However, Wildcats went on a 6-0 burst, seeing the lead change hands again and putting extra pressure on Rockets in front of their home supporters. Seyegadha-Calderon again stepped up, firstly making a layup before sinking a three from way out to regain the lead.
Mullgrave then made a crowd-pleasing steal which led to her adding another bucket. Seixas also forced a turnover as the team’s defencive efforts intensified, helping Seyedagha-Calderon to add another score.
Seixas went on to hit a big three-pointer before Mullgrave scored two more to end the quarter with a healthy lead and all the momentum, 41-34.
Birmingham looked to kill off the game and extend their lead as they entered the fourth. Seyedagha-Calderon made five points at the start of the quarter with two layups and one point from the line. Brownell added four more with the second of those baskets coming from a brilliant steal. This all but sealed the victory.
Chelsea Norris then came into the game, gaining her team possession which led to a three-pointer from Brownell. Mullgrave then made back-to-back layups both cleverly assisted by Turner, who then netted a two of her own, this time assisted by Harrison.
Shaka Berry was introduced into the game for the final minutes and contributed a score for the team, assisted by Seyedagha-Calderon, which added the icing on the cake in a comfortable win for Birmingham in the end, 61-49. That puts Coach Allen’s side 2-0 for the season, topping the standings so far.
Standout performers on the day were: Nuri Seyedagha-Calderon top scoring with 20 points; Sarah Mullgrave who made 14 points; and Grace Brownell who played all 40 minutes of the game and came away with nine points and five steals.
Next up, we travel to Bromsgrove for our last game of the month on the 26th October before we make our return to Nechells on the 14th of December as part of another double-header with the men’s team!
Match report by Jess Ellicott