ESSEX Rebels head coach Tom Sadler believes their fighting mentality paved the way for their inaugural Women's British Basketball League win.

They outscored opponents Cardiff Archers in three quarters to win with a final score of 78-65.

Sadler said: "I'm happy for the girls first and foremost.

"I've said it before and I will keep saying it as long as it is true, this group is working extremely hard every day to get better.

"That is our only goal and the team has bought into that mindset.

"The bonus of this hard work is that we are putting ourselves in positions to win games.

"If for the rest of the season we can continue to focus on getting better and continue to put ourselves in positions to compete and try to win games then we are going to see more success in the second half of the season.

"I also thought we were able to play well on both ends of the floor today for the full 40-minutes.

"We still need to value the ball more and try to limit the amount of turnovers we commit but I thought both our energy to go and get rebounds and fight over screens was much improved and ultimately helped us out massively.

"This is a team that needs to fight for everything, every shot, every rebound, every loose ball and we are building that mentality and translating that to games.

"So that is what we will hopefully be doing the rest of the season: be willing to fight."

Heading into the game, the Rebels had previously faced the Cardiff Archers earlier in the season, losing by six points.

Almost two and a half months later the Rebels, who have been working hard and making big improvements over that time, knew they had a good opportunity to compete.

Cat Lutz, Angel Waithe, and Jessy Ward all put in good performances, combining for 61 points.

Lutz and Waithe also contributed double-double performances, with Lutz scoring 23 points and grabbing 13 rebounds and Waithe scoring 20 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

Ward chipped in 18 points on the day and Grace Sinnott and Charleene Tom also contributed strong performances.

Sinnott narrowly missing out on her first career double-double (seven points and ten rebounds) and Tom dropped six points and getting seven rebounds.

The Rebels also found their way to the foul line 27 times in the game, a result of their aggressiveness towards the basket.

The Archers were led by Laura Shanahan, who scored 15 points and Sarah Jorgensen who scored 12 points.

A rough shooting night plagued the Archers, as they shot only 15 per cent from the three-point line and despite 26 turnovers for the Rebels, they were able to capitalize on over 50 per cent of their shots on the day.

The Rebels will be having a quick turnaround, as they travel back down to Cardiff today for a BUCS game.

They will then have a weekend off before returning to WBBL play on February 3 as they take on league leaders Sevenoaks in the Trophy competition.

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