HAVING been without a game for two weeks, Southend Swifts under-14 girls were ready for action when they entertained Newham Youngbloods and gave national league playing debuts to Adanna Achiebe and Abigail Rice.

The home side made an outstanding start, scoring 14 unanswered points in the first three minutes and then ended the first quarter with a remarkable 40 points.

They never let up from there, eventually winning 94-33.

All 11 players ended up on the scoresheet, including Molley Gould, Georgia Powell, Charlotte Redhead, Katie Bennett, Poppy Herd, Lilly Annim, Eleanor Butt, Cheyenne Deridisi, Tegan Jackson and the two new girls, Achiebe and Rice.

The Swifts under-18 men were also convincing winners, thrashing Folkestone Saints 92-51 on the road in the South Two Conference.

Declan Gould led the way with 31 points, followed by Josh Powell with 21 and Paul Jeboda with 14.

With Zoe Willis, Amelia Wilson, Sasha Cornell and Chelsea Locke all unavailable, and Carlie Abbott back after a long-term injury, it was a rather disjointed Southend Swifts under-16 girls team that travelled into Suffolk to take on the County Upper Coyotes in the South One Conference.

But you wouldn’t have known that watching the game as the Swifts crushed the Coyotes 86-33, scoring a remarkable 32 points before their opponents got onto the scoresheet.

Despite having won five games out of six so far this season, Southend Swifts under-18 girls knew they were in for a battle when they travelled to their nemesis Sevenoaks Suns in the South Conference and so it proved as they went down 83-63.

A poor start saw Southend trail 22-7 after the first quarter but the second quarter saw a better effort with Zoe Willis and Louise Corfield finding the basket but a lack of concentration allowed Suns to make three successive three-pointers as they held an unassailable 47-18 half time lead.

Despite the deficit, Swifts showed some real fight. Charlotte Bennett and Corfield battled for rebounds and Claire Gold and Megan Jones played much better perimeter defence and reduced the margin to 21 but they couldn’t pull it back any further, losing 83-63.