Leeds Carnegie coach James Bambury was a happy man after his team remained top of Women's Division One with an 84-35 mauling of Birmingham A's.

 

"I am happy with the way the team came out to play today," he said. "Birmingham continued to fight throughout the entire game and regardless of the score our team was able to keep the pressure up. We are always looking to improve each and every single day in practice and I feel that it showed today as our defence was strong and consistent. 

 

"We know how hard it is to be a newly-promoted team (as we were last year) and I want to wish Birmingham all the success this year and if they continue to compete the way they did today, they will start to see positive results."

 

Leeds started well and forced A's into turnovers caused by good on-ball pressure which led to break-away layups. Not to be outdone, the A's answered back with two long range bombs to keep the score tight as Leeds led 17-8 at the first break. 

 

Moving into the second quarter the defence for Carnegie remained consistently intense holding the A's to six points in the quarter as they poured in 31 of their own. Led by Joanna Clayden, the guards did a good job of limiting dribble penetration and forcing long shots from the outside. On the offensive end the trio of Clayden, Eszter Velkey and Charlotte Levitt did much of the damage in the first half from the inside - aggressively attacking mismatches. 

 

The second half saw much of the same as Carnegie continued to control the tempo of the game, keeping the ball moving quickly and refusing to settle for contested shots. They led 69-27 at the final break before outscoring the visitors 16-7 in the fourth quarter.

 

Clayden led all scorers with 26 points, while Levitt added 12. Hall was the only A's player in double figures with ten.

 

2009 League and Cup champions City of Sheffield Hatters remain in second spot following an 81-60 victory (stats) at Team Northumbria.

 

Ta'Yani Clark opened the scoring for Northumbria and it took until the 7:34 mark for Sheffield to take the lead through Helen Naylor. With Sarah Naylor nailing a shot 14 seconds before the end of the period, Hatters led 24-22 at the first break

 

Sheffield steadily built the lead during the second period and Shanna Oaddams wrapped up the first half scoring 17 seconds from time sending her team into the locker room 46-33 ahead.

 

Northumbria only briefly got the lead into single figures in the third quarter, but a Ruth Davison trey off Clark's assist saw them cut Sheffield's advantage to 62-50 at the final break. The lead never got below 12 in the final period as Hatters picked up their eighth victory of the season.

 

Helen Naylor led the Hatters with 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals, while Oaddams had a 15 point, 11 board double-double. Sarah Taylor also had 15 points, while Ros Mason marked her return to the club with 13 points.

 

Clark finished with 24 points and 13 boards, with Katrin Hulme adding 11 points in just 19 minutes and Davison ten.

 

Northumbria coach Deridre Hayes remained positive after the game:

 

"Obviously I'm disappointed to lose but we knew it would be a test against Sheffield and we will go away and work on the things we did not do well enough on today.

 

"Sheffield dominated the boards often getting second shot opportunities. After picking up three early fouls I could not afford to leave Ta'Yani Clark on the bench.

 

"Overall I am happy with the progress we have been making, but I'm disappointed to be going into Christmas with a loss and in the New Year our first game is against Nottingham who are one of the teams I see fighting for the title. 

 

"So like I said there are no easy games this season. But we are striving to play better than we did today."

 

 

Dec 12 2009	Leeds Carnegie	85	v	34	Birmingham A's
Dec 12 2009	London Mets	53	v	81	Nottingham Wildcats
Dec 12 2009	Team Northumbria	60	v	81	City Of Sheffield Hatters Game stats
Dec 12 2009	UWIC Archers	90	v	48	Sevenoaks Suns