Resilient Rockets beaten by students
Reading Rockets Ladies 67 Angela Ruskin University Women 85
THE Rockets were narrowly defeated in the play-off Championship final as Ruskin captured the league title for the second consecutive season.
In a pulsating final, the young Rockets side fought valiantly having shocked Loughborough Riders in the semi-final but couldn’t go one step further to taking the title as they also said farewell to captain Maike Delow Fasbender before her retirement.
The Rockets blasted out of the blocks and established an early 16-5 lead as Andrea Gomez de La Vara contributed with a brace of trebles.
Ruskin called a time-out and broke back with a 10-2 run of their own but retiring captain Fasbender inspired the Rockets alongside Maria Angeles Gomez as they battled well to take a 22-14 lead into the second quarter.
Ruskin enjoyed a valuable second quarter and capitalised on a low scoring period from the Rockets as Ruskin captain Katrin Hulme lead by example to take her scoring tally to 16 before half-time to give them a 37-33 advantage at the interval.
The third quarter saw Ruskin take the ascendency to open up a nine point lead but the Rockets kept fighting and levelled the quarter at 16-16 before Ruskin hit a vital four points as they edged their opponents with a 57-49 lead going into the final period of the match.
The Rockets wouldn’t let the silverware slip from their grasp as they kept in contention against their more experienced opponents to take the score to a nail-biting 70-65 with just a couple of minutes remaining.
But Ruskin remained calm as they kept possession to eat down the seconds on the clock and kept the score ticking over as they hit free throws as a result of Rockets determination to regain the ball with a late 10-2 run to clinch the title.
Top scorers for Rockets were Monica Herranz with an outstanding performance including 23 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals. Andrea
Gomez had 12 points and six assists and Candela Hemida Nunez scored seven points.