WBBL Championship
Leicester Riders 75-65 Newcastle Eagles (20-9, 46-21, 67-43)
(Riders – Hamilton 21, Lappenkuper 15, McAlear 14; Eagles – Fernandez Pardo 21, Murphy 20, McVicar 8)

Leicester Riders managed to clinch the fourth WBBL Play-offs spot on Monday night, following their 10-point win over the visiting Newcastle Eagles, 75-65.

Riders started the contest confidentially, bursting out with a 10-0 run within the first three minutes of the opening period, and then adding another ten to give themselves a 20-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Another 9-0 run midway through the second period, Riders found themselves with an incredibly strong lead of 23, and even extending to the 28 at one point, before Newcastle managed to chop away at the lead slightly to knock it back down to 25 going into half-time.

Things weren’t looking too good for the Eagles side when the second half commenced, as despite their best efforts, Riders never failed to drop their lead below 20 and a spot in the Play-offs looked extremely promising for the home side as they took a 24-point lead going into the final period of the game.

However a reinvigorated Eagles’ side suddenly burst out onto the floor for the fourth quarter, and thanks to baskets from leading scorers Marina Fernandez Pardo and Layne Murphy, Eagles managed to replicate the 10-0 run that they had to endure from Riders in the opening period to pull the home side’s lead back down to below 15.

With Eagles out-shooting the home side 22-8 in the final period, Riders’ Play-offs hopes suddenly began to look questionable with the visitors now just trailing the home side by 10 points.

As the clock trickled down to under two minutes remaining, both teams piled on the pressure on both ends of the court, forcing turnovers, capturing steals and fighting over rebounds. Both teams would continue to throw up basket after basket but nothing managed to drop and Riders held onto their ten point lead long enough to the final buzzer sounded to claim that fourth Play-offs spot.

Leicester now join London, Sevenoaks, and Sheffield as those teams who’ve secured their spots. With four spots still remaining and plenty of games still to be played, it’s fair to say this season’s race for the Play-offs is proving to be one of the hottest in WBBL history.