Sometimes statistics don’t tell the whole truth and sometimes they do. On Saturday night at Oaklands College St. Albans it was most certainly the latter as the table-topping Wolves produced a clinical second half performance to take a big win in the SLB and continue their run to the title.

In doing so they extracted full revenge on the Eagles after Newcastle had won the opening encounter between the two sides 86 – 70 on their own court on the 1^st day of the month. Wolves were simply hungrier, stronger and more determined on the night.

All five of Oaklands starters were in double figures whilst for Newcastle only Jada Guinn and Tierra Hodges made significant contributions as their side tasted defeat for the first time in six outings.

Eagles were out rebounded massively throughout the game losing that battle 47 to 32. Newcastle only had 7 assists compared to 21 from Wolves. And whilst Oaklands only made 6 of 26 shots from 3-point range it was still better than Newcastle’s paltry 2 of 18.

Guinn had 25 points and Hodges an excellent double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds. But the next highest scorer for Newcastle was Abby Lowe with 6 points from the bench. Lauren Saiki who got into foul trouble including a technical and Shannon Hatch both having nights they’ll want to forget.

That said this was still anyone’s game at the half. Newcastle despite losing both the opening quarters were only 39 points to 35 down on the buzzer. Guinn had 18 points and Hodges 10 at the half but in the second twenty minutes the Wolves defence tightened the screw on both significantly.

The game was effectively won at the start of the third period. An 8 – 2 run to open from the hungry Wolves gave them their first double-digit lead of the game. By the end of the ten-minute stretch, Oaklands had increased their four-point interval lead to 13 and Gaynor’s side were faltering.

With no-one really stepping up to support their two main scorers Newcastle simply had no answers to the Wolves and ended up losing all four quarters as Oaklands powered to a revenge victory that gives them further daylight at the top of the standings by taking the last 25 points to 13.

Newcastle have been sensational since the turn of the year and their place in the top four of the League has been well deserved. This indeed was only their fourth loss of the SLB Championship campaign.

Gaynor was honest in her post game assessment believing she and her players know what they need to do to get immediately back on track and has total confidence that she they can and will do.

“Realistically I don’t think it will affect confidence too much as we were all pretty aware of what contributed to our performance and ultimately the outcome of that game. That’s one of the positives of this team – we’re not afraid to reflect which means we can adjust and hopefully that will be reflected.”

“We knew going in to the game that Oaklands were going to really attack it and that was evident. They killed us on the boards which we knew would be a problem anyway but ultimately it’s hard when you play good defence to then give an O board up.”

“It doesn’t help with momentum and I think we saw that reflected on the offensive end with some uncharacteristic offense at times. But it’s a quick move on. I have full faith in this team and am confident heading in to these crucial games down the stretch.”