The Ballarat Rush have fallen in their NBL1 match-up with the first-placed Geelong Supercats on the road.
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The Supercats led from the opening tip-off, outscoring the Rush 22-10 at the end of the first quarter.
The Rush bounced back in a major way in the second term, reducing the deficit to five points at the main break thanks to some brilliant scoring from guard Chanice Jenkins.
Jenkins was in a fantastic rhythm throughout the contest, hitting three of her five three-point attempts and en route to a 30-point performance.
Rush coach Eric Hayes said his side's resiliency was pleasing in the second quarter.
"We did some really good things," he said.
"We started off the game pretty poorly but we worked hard and got ourselves back into the game and kept it a battle for a while."
Ballarat continued to look dangerous in the second half but were unable to take the lead due to a fantastic defensive effort from the Supercats and an inability to make open shots.
The Rush look poised to cause an upset in the final term but were outscored 18-5 over the last five minutes of the contest to ultimately fall 83-60.
Hayes said the fourth quarter effort from Ballarat was disappointing.
"They scored 18 points in those final five minutes after we had the margin around 5-10 for much of the game... it's just disappointing we finished the game so poorly after battling so hard for much of the game."
The Rush's next game will be next Saturday on the road against the rival Lady Braves in Bendigo.
DETAILS:
FINAL SCORE:
BALLARAT RUSH: 10, 27, 10, 13 (60)
GEELONG SUPERCATS: 22, 20, 16, 25 (83)
SCORERS: Rush - Jenkins 30 (3 three-pointers), Hackmann 8, Cochrane 8, Amoore 6, Burke 4, Taylor 2, Blower 2. Supercats - Blicavs 22 (4), Macbegor 16, Aokusa 10 (1), Rolph 10 (2), Shelly 7 (1), Bourne 7 (1), Duck 6, Brancatisano 5 (1).
STATS
REBOUNDS - Rush 51, Supercats 58
ASSISTS - Rush 15, Supercats 29
STEALS - Rush 13, Supercats 4
BLOCKS - Rush 1, Supercats 8
TURNOVERS - Rush 15, Supercats 10
FOULS - Rush 11, Supercats 12
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