Another trophy to the cabinet for Sheffield Hatters
The B.Braun Sheffield Hatters made Saturday night a memorable one becoming the Women’s Super League Basketball Champions with their 106-67 victory over the Leicester Riders.
Vanessa Ellis’ side have beaten the Riders in all their matches against them, keeping up their 12 game winning streak. With the playoffs to come, the Hatters are in a great position for a fourth piece of silverware. Next to come for the Sheffield side is an away game against the Oakland Wolves on the 25th of April, to finish their championship season.
On a night where Hatters’ players from the 60’s to the late 90’s joined for heritage night, the current Hatters’ team put on an amazing display. Sheffield opened up strongly with a score of 9-0 before the Riders’ finally got on the board. By the end of the first quarter the Hatters had already created a 9-point gap over Nick Moodey’s side. By half-time Vanessa Ellis’ side, had almost doubled their lead with a 16-point gap as Nina Krisper and Antoinette Lewis both scored two points each to bring the score to 50-34.
It was only on the up for the Hatters going into the third quarter with two 3 pointers from Antoinette Lewis and Shauna Harrison, and multiple 2 pointers from Nina Krisper. Cheyenne Stubbs ended the Hatters scoring for the quarter with 2-points to give them a 30-point lead of 79-49. The fourth quarter sealed the Hatters championship victory as every team member played a valuable part in their 39-point gap victory, especially an on the buzzer three-point shot from Cheyenne Stubbs to end the game 106-67.
There were some stunning performances from Shauna Harrison (15), Antoinette Lewis (19) and closely contending for the MVP award was Nina Krisper, who produced an excellent 22 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. Though claiming the award in amazing fashion, was Megan Mullings, with 28 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 6 steals.
With a massive win the Hatters secured the WSLB Championship for the first time since the 2014/15 season, when the league was known as the Women’s British Basketball League. Now with the Betty Codona trophy, SLB Cup and league championship safely in the cabinet, that only leaves one piece of silverware to collect, the Play-off finals trophy. The Hatters are looking at facing 8th place Nottingham Wildcats in the quarter-finals of the play-offs with a date yet to be confirmed. The Playoff finals do take place on May 17th at the O2 in London.