SOLENT STARS 71 (14, 30, 45)
RHONDDA REBELS 90 (29, 51, 69)
Rhondda beat Solent Stars' women in the club's last Regional League game by 71-90 at Hamble Community Sports College.
The margin of victory emphasised that if Solent, who had already qualified to play in Division 1 of the National League, wish to compete with the top premier teams, they are going to have to improve in virtually every department.
The game started with a nice jump shot by Zsuzsa Tarnai to take Solent into their only lead of the game.
Rhondda went ahead but a great pass from Tarnai to Katarina Syngellakis reduced their lead to 4-9 before Lizzy Cloke collected her third foul and had to leave the game.
Solent tried to stop their opposition pulling away but by half-time they were 21 points adrift at 30-51.
The second half was far more evenly balanced but Solent were never able to eat into Rhondda's substantial lead. Whenever they threatened Gottardi in particular was able to create for herself or her teammates attacking the Solent defence off the dribble at will.
For Solent, Cloke was able to step up, giving Tarnai support at the offensive end but still Solent gave up too many points in transition resulting from turnovers.
Robert and Morgan continued to benefit from Gottardis's creative ability. The only negative for Rhondda was when Robert injured herself, but hopefullyit will not put her out for their European campaign.
The game finished with both teams giving all their players an opportunity to get on court and a disappointing final result of 71-90 to Rhondda.
For Rhondda the result meant they continued their unbeaten start to the season but both teams will be looking forward to the start of the Natioanl League Division 1 schedule in November.
Solent scorers: Z Tarnai 17, S Cooper 16, E Cloke 15, C Jones8, C Brownsell 7, N Scrivener 4, K Syngellakis 2, J Jerram 2, L Gamman, E Ball, L Powell, K Hield.
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