Lions await as Eagles wasteful in Pride loss
ANOTHER STUNNING GORRELL POINTS HAUL ULTIMATELY IN VAIN
CALEDONIA PRIDE NEWCASTLE EAGLES
NEWCASTLE Eagles entertain title challengers BA London Lions this afternoon desperate to break an increasingly dangerous losing habit.
For the second weekend in a row Chris Bunten’s side suffered a heartbreaking defeat down the stretch.
And a seventh league loss leaves crestfallen Newcastle clinging on to their playoff dream ahead of what will be the toughest of tests against the high-flying Lions.
Just seven days after Cardiff Met Archers closed out a tense two-point win on Tyneside, lightning struck twice for the troubled Eagles.
Caledonia Pride turned the ball over an incredible 31 times during an error-strewn cross-border battle but the hosts held on to snatch victory.
Bunten will be left wondering what more his short-handed side has to do to rescue a campaign that looks doomed to failure.
Newcastle skipper Ali Gorell fell two points short of her own WBBL Championship individual scoring record as she motored towards another monstrous 38-point haul.
But the exhausted guard looked dead on her feet as she fouled out in the dying seconds of another hugely frustrating fixture.
Jorjah Smith’s 17 points and nine rebounds off the bench underlined the Aussie guard’s increasing value to a team searching for much-needed confidence and a fresh identity.
But Sian Phillips’ stunning doubledouble of 28 points and 23 rebounds was the story of the game for the Pride as the home side moved above the Eagles in the Championship table.
Prior to his team’s trip to Edinburgh, Bunten had talked about better game management and the need to guard possession. A first period riddled with individual errors must have baffled Newcastle’s playcaller following a week of practice focused on protecting the ball.
The Pride’s full-court press piled the pressure on the hesitant visitors and the Eagles cracked time and again as the turnovers kept on coming.
But it was a similar story for the Scots as a scrappy start to frenetic derby was more about glaring mistakes than showreel plays.
Not for the first time this season Newcastle turned to co-captain Gorrell in a bid to settle nerves and get the scoreboard ticking. A familiar tactic worked a treat.
The Pride’s only solution to a taxing problem was to prevent the Eagles’ top scorer from progressing in the paint by any means necessary.
Gorrell was fouled four times in the first quarter and made the most of every visit to the bonus stripe to convert six of six from the line.
Smith sank four free throws of her own as the Eagles’ edged into a 26-22 lead heading into the second period.
And a must-win clash for the visitors looked there for the taking if Newcastle could only cut down on a series of basic errors.
If the Pride’s scouting report had centred on the twin threat of Gorrell and Maddy Mcvicar then there was little the hosts could do – legally – to slow down the pacey guards.
The Eagles duo combined for 30 points, five boards and six assists in the opening 20 minutes of another eye-catching WBBL contest.
But Caledonia captain Maud Ranger
was keeping the Newcastle defence keen from beyond the arc.
And forwards Phillips and Pollyanna Storie capitalised on their rivals’ lack of height to dominate in the paint.
Significantly, all three of the Pride’s biggest scoring threats had three fouls early in the third quarter and Ranger racked up a potentially pivotal fourth with five minutes of the period to play.
But a terrific 11-2 tear from the hosts opened up a 61-52 lead as the Eagles’ offence all but dried up.
The hosts took a 10-point lead into the final period but a vital put-back two from Smith opened the fourth quarter scoring.
Gorrell moved to 31 personal to tie the game at 72-72 but that was as good as it got for fast-tiring Newcastle as another winnable match went begging.
NAOMI Osaka will continue to tread her own path but the Japanese star’s fourth grand slam title at the Australian Open puts her in rarefied company.
Osaka maintained her perfect record in slam finals with a 6-4 6-3 victory over first-time finalist Jennifer Brady, adding a second title in Melbourne to the two US Open trophies she owns.
The 23-year-old is just the third player in the Open era to win her first four slam finals after Monica Seles and Roger Federer and, on being told that fact, she said with a smile: “My reaction is that that’s very amazing company.
“I hope that I can have one grain of how their career has unfolded. You can only wish and you can only just keep going down your own path. But it’s definitely something crazy to hear.”
Osaka remains behind Ashleigh Barty in the rankings because of the temporary switch to a two-year system but there is no doubt she is the best player in the world on hard courts.
Osaka struggled to deal with her new-found status after winning back-to-back slam titles in New York and Melbourne in 2018 and 2019 but she has become comfortable with her position and the expectations placed upon her.
She said: “The first time that I won both these trophies, in a way I was just a kid. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was winning my matches but I wasn’t really appreciating the moment, the tournament, how hard it is to even get to the position that I’m in right now.
“So I would say the ups and downs in my career definitely opened my eyes a lot. I don’t look at expectations as a burden anymore.”
Not that she will be getting ahead of herself when it comes to major titles.
“I’m taking it in sections,” she said. “For right now, I’m trying to go for five. After five I would think about maybe dividing the 10, so maybe seven or eight.
“I like to take things not big picture. I know that the people that I’m playing against are the best players in the world and, if my time comes to win another grand slam, it will come.”
It will surely come sooner rather than later, with the big question now being whether Osaka can translate her success on hard courts to clay and grass.
She has not made it past the third round at either the French Open or Wimbledon but is confident she can improve on both surfaces.
Asked which she thought her first slam title away from hard courts would be, she said: “Hopefully clay because it’s the one that’s sooner. I feel like I have to get comfortable on those surfaces. I didn’t play juniors, so I didn’t grow up playing on grass at all.”
Osaka’s victory extended her winning run to 21 matches dating back more than a year and she hopes consistency can be the hallmark of her 2021 season.
“Anybody can give me a medal if I win all my matches this year, but I don’t think it’s possible,” she said. “Tennis players, we go through ups and downs. I only hope that my ups and downs are less drastic this year.”
Osaka and Brady played a superb match in the semi-finals of the US Open last year but this was only briefly a contest after Osaka overcame some early wobbles to clinch the first set.
Having dropped serve to trail 3-1, Brady fought back to level and put the pressure on her opponent only to dump a weak forehand into the net on Osaka’s first set point.
The third seed then raced into a 4-0 lead in the second set. Brady did well to compose herself and at least ask questions, but Osaka had the answers.