WBBL Play-Offs: Newcastle Eagles deliver biggest upset in history, Sevenoaks Suns safely through to semi-finals

The Newcastle Eagles produced the shock of the season while the champion Sevenoaks Suns reaffirmed their dominance as the WBBL Play-Off quarter-finals got under way at the Vertu Motors Arena in Newcastle on Saturday.

Never in a WBBL postseason had a seventh seed beaten a second seed, until this year as the Eagles defeated the Leicester Riders 79-73 after entering on the back of consecutive losses, with Abby Lowe (26) and Alison Gorrell (24) accounting for three-quarters of their points.

Eagles found themselves in a hole early in a first half that entailed big swings, with Riders initially leading by seven before their opponents went ahead by eight as Lowe scored seven points in an 11-2 second-quarter burst. The teams were tied on three occasions and trading baskets in the third until the contest eventually being split by just one shot heading into the final 10 minutes.

Newcastle opened the fourth with back-to-back threes from Lowe and Rachael Bland to lead 63-54 and from there they managed to hold Riders off, despite Leicester's efforts to close the gap.

Maddy McVicar hit a timely triple to extend the advantage, but they still required one more big score as Riders moved within two inside the final minute, the decisive points coming out of a timeout on a play drawn up for Lowe.

Gorrell added eight rebounds and seven assists in a near triple-double, while McVicar had a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Earlier in the day, Sevenoaks had powered past Oaklands Wolves with a 76-59 win, extending their five-year and 10-game unbeaten postseason run having lifted the Play-Off trophy in each of the last three completed seasons dating back to 2016-17.

After a tight opening, the Suns blew the game open with a 14-0 surge early in the second stanza as Irene Garrido-Perez scored seven of her game-high 20 points and Worcester were held scoreless for nearly seven minutes.

Suns scored 10 second chance points off seven offensive rebounds in the first 15 minutes, and the lead reached 34-20 as Ta'Yani Clark grabbed an offensive board and scored off a Cat Carr assist.

That margin was rarely threatened, only briefly in single-figures early in the third quarter before it went through 20 points when Garrido-Perez and Renee Busch hit consecutive three-pointers early in the fourth.

As well as Garrido-Perez scoring 20 on 7-9 (77 percent) shooting, captain Carr was close to a triple-double of 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.