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Why do the Gloucester City Queens need Marlee Ball to step up against Nottingham Wildcats in their WBBL Trophy game this weekend?

The Gloucester City Queens made their 2022 debut last weekend, however, their WBBL Trophy match against the Nottingham Wildcats on Saturday is a must-win.

The Queens, after a long break in the action, lost 64-62 against the Oaklands Wolves, with the tight affair coming down to the final seconds.

Melita Emanuel-Carr and Marlee Ball combined for 42 points, scoring 24 and 18 respectively but it wasn’t enough to push the Gloucestershire franchise over the final hurdle.

As for the Nottingham Wildcats, they are a familiar foe for Jay Marriott’s side, and dominated the last match-up between the two teams in December, winning by 48 points in an 82-34 victory in the WBBL Championship fixture.

The Wildcats shooting was the key feature to dominating the game and but it was the Queens overall shooting that lost them the game, as they shot 22% from the field, 21.8% less than their counterpart.

Why does Marlee Ball need to step up this weekend?

Marlee Ball is going to be a key feature for the rest of the season and this weekend will be the first glance of the Canadian guard in a major role this year.

Through the eight games so far this season, Ball is averaging 13.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists, but inconsistency in shooting has affected her chances of moving to an elite scorer in the WBBL.

31.7% from the field and 29.9% from behind-the-arc doesn’t catch the eye like other players in the league or on the Queens roster, but she will need to keep shooting in order to try and score some points for a diminished Gloucester roster.

It’s been reported that Emanuel-Carr might miss the game and is still 50/50 as to whether she will play, so the Queens need a leader and a scorer, and Ball will have to be that option.

How do the two teams match up?

When you look at the statistics, the sheer dominance of Nottingham is very obvious ahead of the game.

With the loss of Maura Fitzpatrick earlier in the season due to injury, the Queens are relying on Emanuel-Carr and Ball for the main scoring load.

Emanuel-Carr is averaging 13.6 points through eight games this season, whilst Ball is averaging 13.3 points per game.

However, with the Commonwealth silver medalist potentially missing the next game, Ball will have to rely on her teammates to step up and join her on the offensive end.

Nottingham, on the other hand, are finding it easy to score this season, and are averaging 73 points per game this season, the fifth-highest in the WBBL.

With four major offensive threats in Brooklyn Pannell (18.8 PPG), Jahnae Gyles (16.4 PPG), Shaunay Edmonds (15 PPG) and Kennedy Nicolas (12.1 PPG), the Wildcats possess many things that most teams don’t, quick offence.

It will be important for the Queens to have a defensive plan outlined from the get-go to try and slow down any offence, in order to stay in the game.

Head coach Jay Marriott not worried about WBBL Trophy game

When questioned by a member of the Queens’ media team earlier today, head coach Jay Marriott stated some interesting news coming out of the Oxstalls Arena and expressed his relaxed thoughts on the trophy.

“We’re looking to make another addition to the team that hopefully, we’ll announce this evening that will alleviate the pressure of not having Melita there for the weekend.

“So that’s quite exciting for us going into this game.

“Also as this is a trophy game we can be relatively relaxed, I’m viewing cup runs as an added bonus and going into this game, we just need to improve on the last time we played them.”

Where is it and what time?

The game will take place at the Nottingham Wildcats Arena on Saturday 15 January at 5:30PM.

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