Essex Rebels on the up despite semi-final loss

Captain Claire Paxton says the future looks bright for the Essex Rebels women's team despite missing out on a place in the Super League Basketball Championship final.

The Rebels, who achieved their best finish of third place in the regular season, had to make an 800-mile round trip to face Caledonia Gladiators in the semi-finals.

They were beaten 80-58 in Sunday's match-up, with the Gladiators going through to face Sheffield Hatters in the final.

"They're a tough opponent and it just wasn't to be for us on the day. Eight, nine hours on a bus and then to be met by them, it was a tough situation to play in," Paxton told BBC Essex.

"If we had finished second and met them at home in the semi-final, it might have been a different story.

"The goal from the start of the season was to finish in the top four which we achieved with the third-place finish.... but we would have liked to make a final this year, we definitely had the pieces to do it."

The team had a 100% record at their University of Essex base during the season and had beaten London Lions 93-72 seven days earlier to reach the last four.

"That was definitely a standout performance for us in a quarter-final game, we'd never made it out of the quarter-finals before," said Paxton.

"Ash [Ashley Cookson] the head coach is in his third season, I think it takes a few seasons to grow and understand the whole system we're trying to play and this year was the perfect group of people to put that into fruition, we moulded together very well, we complemented each other very well on the court."

The Rebels joined the SLB in 2018-19 and made it to their first major final two years ago before losing to the Lions in the Betty Codona Trophy.

Now they will be looking to continue their progress next season, although it has yet to be confirmed which players will be leaving and staying.

"I think there's a couple of weeks of decompression and letting the emotions settle before people start making decisions about what happens next," Paxton added.

"We had a very deep roster (this season) with lots of people able to contribute, both imported players and British girls - there's a lot of young British talent on the team so it's really good for the future.

"Unfortunately, we had a few injuries that have also probably impacted our performance towards the end of the season, but with people getting injured we've had some of the younger girls step up.

"Against London in the quarter-final, we had all 12 girls getting onto the court and contributing straight away which is a great sign of the depth of the whole squad."