WBBL Championship
Caledonia Pride 75-53 Manchester Met Mystics (18-13, 33-28, 53-39)
(Pride – Ranger 21, Phillips 19, James 10; Mystics – Jones 14, Bailey 13, Williams 9)
WBBL Championship
Cardiff Met Archers 65-84 Durham Palatinates (22-27, 33-49, 46-68)
(Archers – Hatch 22, Saiki 12, Shanahan 8; Palatinates – Wayne 20, Lowe 16, Bennett 15)
WBBL Championship
Gloucester City Queens 58-79 Newcastle Eagles (17-24, 30-40, 40-68)
(Queens – Abbott 19, Ball 17, Marques 9; Eagles – McVicar 20, Eadsforth-Yaytes 19, Cipcic 17)
WBBL Championship
Oaklands Wolves 47-83 Leicester Riders (9-20, 26-37, 39-58)
(Wolves – Sarson 11, Quick 8, Uprus 8; Riders – Lewis 15, Mcalear 15, Hamilton 12)
WBBL Championship
Sheffield Hatters 87-80 Nottingham Wildcats (28-19, 43-42, 55-49, 71-71)
(Hatters – Horton 21, Fong Lyew Quee 15, Gayle 14; Wildcats – Pannell 21, Gyles 13, Egharevba 13)
(After overtime)
There was a Super Saturday in the WBBL Championship with ten teams in action on a potentially important day in the Play-off race, as all of the teams from 8th – the final post-season slot – to 13th played.
Highest up the table, third-placed Sheffield Hatters improved to a 13-3 record after coming through overtime to beat form team Nottingham Wildcats 87-80 at home, in a typically tight clash between old rivals, both teams with past Championship titles to their names.
Hatters led by double-figures in the first quarter as Georgia Gayle scored eight points and Ebony Horton hit 14 in the first half; and despite the visitors coming back to temporarily lead, Helen Naylor scored on the half-time buzzer before Sheffield opened the third period on a 12-2 run, holding Wildcats scoreless for six minutes as Marl Stewart scored five points and they led 55-44 on her three-pointer.
Despite looking out of the game, Wildcats finished on an 11-3 surge in the final three minutes, levelling it up with 11 seconds to go on a step-back three-pointer from Molten WBBL Player of the Month for February, Brooklyn Pannell.
But Hatters regained control in the extra period, led by their Great Britain international point guard Nicolette Fong Lyew Quee as she made a key three-pointer and followed it with an ‘and-one’ play to make the score 79-74 with two minutes left, scoring 12 of her 15 points in overtime.
Horton led Hatters overall, with 21 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Just behind them, Leicester Riders strengthened their claim on a top four spot with a big 83-47 win on the road at Oaklands Wolves, making it four wins in the last five games and a 10-4 record overall.
Riders scored the first 12 points of the game, holding the hosts scoreless for five minutes, with all of their points coming on the inside as Oceana Hamilton started by converting both of her early efforts.
A 15-5 start to the third period – Anna Lappenkuper getting seven of those – sent the lead through 20 at 52-31 after another near five minute shut out; and that was followed by a 12-2 start to the fourth as Riders posted a series of big runs and a Brooklynn Mcalear score made it 70-41.
Alison Lewis led Leicester’s scoring with 15 points in 18 minutes off the bench, while Hamilton had another double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Mcalear also scored 15 with eight assists.
The most significant result in the chase for Play-off places saw Caledonia Pride beat fifth-placed Manchester Met Mystics 75-53 at home, making it four straight wins and consolidating eighth place in the process at 6-10.
Pride led for the vast majority of the game after finishing the first quarter on a 7-2 push sparked by a Maud Ranger triple, before Maela Faleu scored with the last possession to make it 18-13.
They settled the game with a big opening to the second half, scoring the first eight points as Ranger scored the opening basket and capped it with a triple for a double-figure lead, before that run became 14-2 when Taylor Edwards scored consecutively and gave Pride a 47-30 advantage.
The visitors were kept at arm’s length from there, Ranger finishing with a game-high 21 points after making five three-pointers, while captain Laken James did a bit of everything with 10 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Just one place behind Pride, Newcastle Eagles kept up the pressure with a 79-58 road win at Gloucester City Queens, putting ground between themselves and their hosts, who started the day one place behind.
Trailing in the first quarter, Eagles took control of the game when Dora Cipcic scored consecutively to put them in front and Jess Eadsforth-Yaytes hit a three-pointer before Maddy McVicar beat the buzzer with another in a 10-2 finish to the first for a 24-17 lead. And they were up double-figures at the half as Layne Murphy scored six points in a row to make it 40-30 at the break.
Eagles then settled the game with an irrepressible 22-2 surge in the third period, sparked by Chloe Gaynor’s ‘and-one’ play followed by back-to-back triples from McVicar, before Eadsforth-Yaytes added nine more points in that spell and the lead reached an insurmountable 68-40.
McVicar hit six three-pointers on the night to lead Eagles with 20 points, while Cipcic posted a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Murphy did likewise with 13 and 10.
Finally, Durham Palatinates took a step towards the Play-off places as they moved up to 10th, above Queens, with an 84-65 road win at Cardiff Met Archers, snapping a run of back-to-back defeats as all five starters scored in double-figures, led by 20 from Jess Wayne as Elle Hendershot finished with a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds.
After a high-scoring start, Durham opened the second stanza on a 12-2 push, not allowing their hosts a field goal for nearly six minutes, as Wayne scored five points and made the score 39-24 on an ‘and-one’ play, reaching 49-33 when Abby Lowe beat the half-time buzzer.
Archers couldn’t get the deficit down into single-figures, and when Palatinates hit an unanswered 10 points midway through the third, including triples for Wayne and Lowe, the lead was through 20 at 66-43 and they never looked back.