Rebels aim to make home advantage count in play-offs

Paige Meyer joined Essex Rebels from the South Dakota Jackrabbits [Getty Images]

Essex Rebels will take a perfect home record into the women's Super League Basketball play-offs this weekend.

The team achieved their highest placing of third since joining SLB in 2018-19, winning all nine matches at their University Of Essex base in the process.

They made sure of a home quarter-final by beating Manchester 85-72 last weekend and will now face London Lions, having already beaten them twice during the regular season.

"It's an exciting time with play-offs ahead of us. Being able to play at home, have your home fans there to support you, really means a lot. Securing that spot and knowing we'll play at home is a big advantage," point guard Paige Meyer told BBC Essex's Sports Extra.

"Play-offs is like a new season for everyone, everyone's going to come into it bringing their best game, knowing what's on the line, so it's definitely going to be a good test and challenge for us."

The Rebels have won their last four games, including an 86-66 home success against the Lions - the team that beat them in their first major final, in the Betty Codona Trophy, in 2024.

"We've talked about the momentum we want going into play-offs, so securing wins these last few weekends helps us feel confident going into play-off time now," said Meyer, who moved from her native US after joining the Rebels last September.

"Securing the third place was the highest seeding for the team since joining the SLB so to be a part of that has been really cool and being able to host the first play-off game is another huge milestone.

"It's been a lot of fun to be a little part of the history that's maybe being made here and it's exciting to to see what kind of standards are set for the following years."

The club have a thriving girls' programme with 60 regular players from Under-12 level up to Under-18s.

And director Anjuli Symonds said: "It's really important for us to grow the girls' pathway, the same as the boys.

"We've got an inspirational group sitting at the top with the SLBW team who have also just made the play-offs - it's so inspirational for our young girls to look up to them."

Both SLB finals will take place at London's O2 Arena on 17 May and the Rebels have set their sights on being part of the occasion.