Wildcats and Hatters Happiest on Saturday

Nottingham Wildcats and Westfield Health Sheffield Hatters will be the happiest teams after a big Saturday afternoon for the WBBL Championship’s top four sides, in which only those two teams prevailed.

Wildcats remain top of the table after coming through a tough road trip to Edinburgh, beating Caledonia Pride 63-49 as the league’s leading scorer, Ashley Harris, led them with 19 points and Siobhan Prior had 13 points and six steals, including her 100th career steal in the WBBL.

Hatters, meanwhile, have taken a share of second place after their own trip across another border resulted in a comprehensive 95-69 defeat of Cardiff Met Archers. It was their joint-highest points tally of the campaign so far, as Stephanie Gandy led all-scorers for the fifth time this season with 26 points.

And Sheffield’s rise was enabled by the fact that the teams previously in second and third, Manchester Mystics and Leicester Riders, both lost at home.

Mystics were toppled, 69-45, for the first time in eleven games by an outstanding Sevenoaks Suns performance. Renee Busch scored eight crucial points in a row just before the half, and they were led by a big double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds from Anne Pedersen, ending with their biggest ever win over Mystics.

And Riders couldn’t capitalise on Mystics’ defeat as they were beaten at home for the first time this season, 73-53 by Team Northumbria who, themselves, made it a third straight road win in the league in pursuit of Suns and Barking Abbey Crusaders above them.

Finally, Crusaders had just enough to hold off bottom-placed Oaklands Wolves 66-63 despite a startling late surge from the Wolves. Crusaders were led to a fourth win in five by Imani Whittington’s 19 points. Crusaders were the only one of five home teams to win.