LSBU Lady Topcats 74-49 Oaklands College Wolves
Top Scorers: Josephine 14, Lwazi 13, Da Silva & Davids 11
The Lady Topcats stay top of Division 2 with a dominant away performance against a young talented Oaklands team.
The game started with both teams exchanging inside points putting the home side Oaklands up 6-5 early which was to be their only lead of the entire game as the Lady Topcats picked up their defence leading to easy scores from Sevian Witter who notched up a quick 6 unanswered points. Fatumah Lwazi provided a great spark off the bench connecting for back to back three pointers giving the Topcats a lead of 24-12 at the end of the first. The second quarter was a closer affair with Oaklands starting to find their range but the Lady Topcats were still playing at a high tempo game led by Rochelle Davids tallying 7 unanswered points of her own to extend the lead to 35-20 half way through the 2nd quarter. Well executed offensive sets against Oaklands zone led to various players scoring giving a half time lead of 45-29.
The second half started slow for both teams with defence very much the theme. Lwazi and Vanessa Da Silva took on the bulk of the scoring to extend the Topcats lead to 18 at the end of the third quarter (55-37). The final stanza saw again the stamina of the Topcats with the their relentless up-tempo attack mode causing defensive errors from the home team. This allowed Davids to find gaps and make some great assists to Stephanie Laguda and Da Silva for easy scores. The lead had now jumped to its largest of the game at 74-45 where Oaklands finished strong but it was never going to be enough where the Lady Topcats ran out winners 74-49 to continue their hot start to the season to stay undefeated in all competitions and top of Division 2. Head Coach Steve Vear was pleased with the way his team rallied to victory and gave credit to his inside players.
“To have all three bigs each grab double digits rebounds shows a lot about how hard they work on both ends of the floor. They really get after it which helps us to get out on the break and play up-tempo. Vanessa was outstanding today where her stat line speaks volumes with just how hard she is working on her game. The team is really coming together and I’m happy with our progression” – Coach Steve Vear
The Lady Topcats face their biggest challenge so far this season tomorrow Sunday 17th November as they take on Division 1 outfit Barking Abbey in the quarter final of the National Cup away with tip off 3pm.
Match report kindly provided by Brixton Topcats – www.brixtontopcats.org
