Lions become first British team ever – male or female – to win European honours with EuroCup Women triumph

In a gripping encounter at a sold-out Copper Box, the London Lions clinched the EuroCup Women’s title with a remarkable victory in the second leg of their Final showdown against Turkish side Besiktas.

Needing to overturn a seven-point deficit from last week’s first leg in Turkey, the Lions never trailed in the game as they attempted to get on the front foot from the outset and get ahead of Besiktas on aggregate.

The Great Britain trio of Holly Winterburn, Karlie Samuelson and Temi Fagbenle were crucial in keeping the score ticking over for the Lions early in the game, and they would go on to combine for 49 of London’s 81 points on the night.

Samuelson starred on the scoring front with an incredible 70% shooting percentage on the night leading to 19 points, as Fagbenle was a vital presence in the post with her battling and hustling, causing the Besiktas bigs to get into foul trouble that would help the Lions secure victory down the stretch.

It was Winterburn who stole the headlines, though, as her eight early points gave London a great platform from which to build their assault on the visitors’ aggregate lead from the outset of the game; and it was her clutch wing three-pointer with 12 seconds on the clock that put London up by nine on the night with the win just moments away.

Spanish international Megan Gustafson sealed the deal from the free-throw line for London to add to her impressive 18-point tally, which was hard-fought after a night-long battle alongside Fagbenle against Besiktas’ Trijana Krivacevic and Yuere Li, and the Copper Box soon erupted as an epic contest concluded with historic significance.

Losing only once in 16 EuroCup Women’s games this season, capped off by last night’s epic victory, the Lions wholly deserved their triumph in the competition and their successes will rightly go down as one of the biggest victories in British basketball history. Congratulations to everybody at the London Lions organisation on their success.