A final quarter surge was not quite enough for the Gloucester City Queens on Saturday as they were narrowly defeated by just two points against Oakland Wolves at Oaklands College.
It was a challenging first half for the visitors, they found themselves 14 points behind and faced an uphill struggle in the final 20 minutes.
The Queens looked down and out with just over five minutes left to play, trailing by 13 points, but some superb offensive and defensive possessions saw them nearly pull off an incredible turnaround.
Melita Emanuel-Carr (24pts, 10reb) and Marlee Ball (18pts, 10reb) were the stars of the show for the Queens but unfortunately they just fell short.
This match gave us the opportunity to get a first look at the latest Queens signing, Portuguese guard Carolina Marques.
Stepping up from the National Basketball League, Marques follows in the footsteps of former Worcester Wolves stars Layla Skye and Inma Bautista in moving to Gloucester.
In the lead up to the match, head coach Jay Marriott described that “she is a fantastic player” and that he was very excited to see what see could do.
Her first cameo saw her total nine points, along with two rebounds and two assists, she showed plenty of promise and hopefully there is even more to come.
Elsewhere on the court, Melita Emanuel-Carr put on a dazzling display, with her best game so far this season.
Averaging 12.1 points and 7 assists a game this season, Emmanuel-Carr certainly stepped up, posting a double-double with 24 points and ten rebounds.
It is matches like this that Jay Marriott expected from his marquee signing this summer, she is a natural leader on the court and is extremely talented.
This game also saw the return of Bianca Osas-Maxwell to the court, having only played four times since her arrival, it is good to see her getting minutes.
She led the team in assists for this game, picking up a total of four.
Although this game marked a streak of six straight defeats, this performance should give the Queens a much needed boost.
Next weekend they take on Nottingham Wildcats who sit just one place above them in the standings, in the reverse fixture though the Queens were beaten 82-34, so will be hoping for a much better outing this time around.
