All Star Rebels

Two of our students have made the Women’s British Basketball All Star 5, a centrally chosen team of five players,  picked by the league from the weeks winning teams across the league.

As the Essex Rebels basketball team look to build on their success of last season, the current run of form has allowed the Rebels to climb into the top half of the WBBL championship league table. Impressive displays from current students Lucrezia Costa and Claire Paxton, as well as alumni DeAngelique Waithe, who has previously made it to the All Star 5 roster, all contributed to the team’s success.

Lucrezia Costa, a student based in our Essex Business School, posted a first double-double of the season. She finished on 18 points and 10 rebounds, with five of those boards coming at the offensive end as the league’s third leading offensive rebounder, including a big momentum play as she made an ‘and-one’ after crashing the glass to cap a 6-0 run and break a one-point game. Shooting 6-10 (60%) from the floor and 6-7 (85%) at the line, she also added five assists and two blocks, handing out three assists in that first quarter.

Claire Paxton, a student from our Department of Sociology, put in a dominant performance and she was close to a triple-double off the bench in Rebels’ win over Durham, and made telling contributions to feature in the All Star 5 for the first time this season. Like her teammate, she completed a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds, while also dishing out a team-high seven assists. She had an all-action five minute spell after emerging from the bench into the decisive first quarter run that gave Essex the lead for good, scoring the three-pointer that capped an early 11-4 push, while grabbing three rebounds and handing out two assists in that spell.

DeAngelique Waithe, a former student from our School of Sort, Rehabilitation and Exercise Science, picked up the Rebels first showing in the All Star 5 in week 6 after a dominant home performance against Manchester Mystics, a team the Rebels have found difficult to beat in previous seasons. DeAngelique was a regular in last season’s All Star 5,  and the Essex forward made her first appearance of this campaign in the Rebels first win in the WBBL Championship where they put a century on Manchester Met Mystics. Waithe scored 18 of those points with very efficient 7-10 (70%) interior shooting and a perfect 4-4 from the line, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out three assists in just 21 minutes of action. Rebels got off to a rapid 11-2 start in which she scored four points and grabbed three rebounds in the opening few minutes as they led comfortably from tip-to-buzzer, and the lead went through 20 in the third quarter when she scored another four in a 6-0 burst.

You can next catch the Rebels in action in the Essex Sport Arena on 27 November and follow us on social media Essex Rebels Basketball to find out more:

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