22 Apr 2017: Mystics 79-71 Wolves

Lauren Thomas-Johnson puts in a season-best performance to see Manchester Mystics past Oaklands Wolves.

WBBL Championship
Manchester Mystics 79 (19,35,57) (Thomas-Johnson 25, Jones 13, Browne 12)
Oaklands Wolves 71 (9,27,43) (Nelson 16, Fleming 13, Christie 9)

Manchester Mystics closed out the WBBL Championship regular season with a win, beating Oaklands Wolves 79-71, en route to a highest ever WBBL finish. Mystics can still finish anywhere between third and fifth, depending on how Sevenoaks Suns and Westfield Health Sheffield Hatters fare on Sunday.

Manchester were led by Lauren Thomas-Johnson, with her highest tally of the campaign so far of 25 points and 10 rebounds, including some important scores; while Georgia Jones added 13 points and nine assists.

Mystics came into this game on the back of consecutive losses, that had cost them a higher finish in the table, and they trailed early in this one against the bottom-placed side.

But the hosts swiftly turned it around, breaking the game open midway through the first quarter by rattling off 12 unanswered points to lead 18-7, Jones scoring consecutively.

It was still slightly jittery from Mystics, and Wolves narrowed the gap in a low-scoring start to the second stanza, getting as close as 25-21 after Krisztina Nagy’s three-pointer sparked a 7-0 burst.

But the decisive run came at the outset of the second half, when Thomas-Johnson scored the first eight points, to reassert Manchester’s double-digit lead at 43-27, and they were never threatened from there as she scored five in a row late in the game to see off a Wolves fightback in the fourth quarter.

If Mystics are to finish third, they need both Suns and Hatters to lose tomorrow, as they don’t hold the head-to-head against either.