The curtain fell on WBBL in action in 2018 with a thriller.
WBBL Championship
Nottingham Wildcats 60-59 Durham Palatinates (16-11, 32-27, 45-44)
It was a nail-biter, but Nottingham Wildcats continued their recent renaissance after pipping Durham Palatinates in their pre-Christmas meeting to climb to third in the standings.
In the last game to be played this calendar year in the WBBL Championship, Wildcats signed off on a high with a thrilling victory – thanks mainly to some eye-bulging numbers again from Jasmine Joyner.
Leading scorers – Chelsey Shumpert 18, Jasmine Joyner 15, Siobhan Prior 8 (Wildcats); Harriet Ottewill-Soulsby 22, Monika Bosilj 15, Betsy MacDonald 13 (Palatinates)
Turning point – Durham had the chance to win the game with only a handful of seconds left but missed the shot and who else, but Joyner grabbed the rebound to make the game safe for the hosts.
Key stat – Durham gave up a staggering 26 offensive rebounds to their opponents. Meanwhile Wildcats made hard work of things after missing more than half of their 13 free-throws.
Game hero(es) – Joyner posted her second amazing performance of the weekend to make it a win double for her team. While she had a shocker shooting-wise in the first half, it didn’t stop her recording a huge double-double of 15 points and 26 rebounds, as well as five blocked shots and 3 steals.