15 Apr 2017: Wildcats 57-52 Northumbria

Ashley Harris’s double-double leads Nottingham Wildcats to the WBBL Championship title.

WBBL Championship
Nottingham Wildcats 57 (12,29,45) (Harris 15, Prior 13, Mendes 10)
Team Northumbria 52 (21,34,42) (Gorrell 21, Bonenberger 15, Baraut 12)

Nottingham Wildcats have won back-to-back WBBL Championship titles after wrapping-up this season’s accolade with a game to spare, after a 57-52 victory over Team Northumbria on Saturday.

Wildcats were led, fittingly, by the league’s leading scorer, Ashley Harris, as she posted another big double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds.

But they had to show their championship credentials to dig themselves out of an early hole against in-form opponents, whose last win over them came last May at the O2 Arena in the Play-off final.

Alison Gorrell scored six early points, in a 10-2 run, and Northumbria led 19-10 when Claudia Baraut hit a three-pointer. That lead reached double-figures, at 26-14, when she connected from long-range again early in the second stanza.

But Wildcats turned it around on the run up to half time. They finished with a 10-2 burst, sparked by a Harris triple as she scored five to narrow the gap to 34-29.

And Nottingham then opened the third 8-2, an 18-4 spell in total across the break, to snatch the lead at 37-36 on Vanessa Da Silva’s score. They then held their visitors scoreless for five minutes, adding another seven unanswered points including consecutive Siobhan Prior baskets, for 44-38, before taking a one shot advantage into the final ten minutes.

Wildcats added the first nine points of the fourth quarter, and the championship party was in sight as the lead swelled to double-digits at 54-42. That gave them enough to hold off a late Northumbria rally and begin the celebrations.

It was a fourth win of the season for Wildcats over Northumbria, ending their visitors’ chances of a top four finish – the highest they can finish is sixth – on a third consecutive road defeat.