Four playoff finals were staged at the Edmonton Leisure Centre on Saturday, with London Lithuanians, Nottingham Hoods, Stockport Lapwings and London United-Richmond College all taking the titles.

Division 2 - Women

 

The season reached a climax with the playoff final from Edmonton Green Leisure Centre on Saturday.

 

Stockport Lapwings ran out victorious over a strong Solent Suns team, although the game was tied 23-23 at the half. After the break, Stockport came out playing hard, and went up by 8 in the 3rd, a trend which continued into the 4th. With 7:44 left in the final quarter, Stockport were up by a commanding 9 points. Solent, sensing time was running out, kicked their game up a notch, and quickly chipped away at the Stockport lead. With just 26 seconds left, Solent even had a chance to tie, but Caroline Turner was desperately unlucky to miss her 3 point attempt, and Stockport won by 6.

 

The game MVP was Stockport's Jade Lucas, who scored 21 points. She also snagged 11 rebounds and 3 assists.

 

Stockport Lapwings   55 - 49   Solent Suns

Division 3 - Men

 

A see-saw affair in the Division 3 final saw London United - Richmond College come away with a victory. They started quickly, racing out to a 23-12 lead at the end of 1, but the score line was a lot more even come the end of the half, with Eastside trailing by just 2.

 

Eastside did well to stick with London United during the game, and at one stage towards the end of the 3rd they were up by 7, but only had a 2 point lead to show for their efforts once the 4th quarter started. However this all London affair ended in favour of the Richmond College side, who outscored Eastside by 12 in the 4th, claiming the win and leaving Eastside to wonder what might have been considering their 3rd quarter display.

 

Andy Harper of London United picked up MVP honours, supplementing his 23 point haul with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

 

London United - Richmond College   63 - 53   Eastside Eagles

 

A very exciting game between Nottingham Hoods and Birmingham Mets unfortunately had to produce a winner and a loser, but this game was close right down to the wire. Much like the Division 3 final, one team raced into a commanding lead, with Nottingham up by 9 at the end of 1st half, 35-26.

 

Perhaps Nottingham took their foot of the gas and sensed the hard work had already been done, but Birmingham came back strong and rallied to tie the score at 42-42 after 3 quarters of play. Birmingham even took the lead with great 3 pointer by Mark Jones with just over 6 minutes left in the game, but Nottingham showed real heart to keep going and pulled off a win, thanks in part to the 3 point shooting of Anthony Haase.

 

Down 53-49, Haase hit a 3 pointer with a little over 4 minutes remaining to cut Birmingham's lead from 4 to 1. As time ticked by, it was that man Haase again, scoring another 3 with just 1:37 left in the game to take Nottingham up 57-53. After that Birmingham chased hard but couldn't get back level, leaving them to rue a slow first half performance.

 

Guy Renton was the games MVP, with 17 points, 9 rebounds and an assist. Haase finished with 14 points, shooting 3 from 4 at 3 point distance.

 

 

Stats

Founders Cup

 

Perhaps the most exciting game to grace the Edmonton Green Leisure Centre during a packed slate of action came in the Founders Cup final between the defending champions Kingston Wildcats and London Lithuanians, where Kingston finished with just 3 players!

 

The game was tight throughout, with neither team able to establish a foothold on proceedings. London managed to scrape a 1 point lead after a quarter of play, and extended that to 3 points at the half. Something inspirational must have reached the Kingston players during the halftime break though, as they came out of the traps quickly and soon overcame the 3 point defecit. With 2 minutes left in the 3rd, they had charged out to a 10 point lead of their own. By the end of the 3rd it was 45-38 to Kingston.

 

The 4th quarter was highly eventful and provided more than value for money for the watching fans. Kingston remained in the lead for the majority of the quarter, but they were constantly blighted by foul trouble. One by one, the Kingston players reached the foul limit, until they were down to their 5 on court and no substitutes left. The Lithuanians perhaps sensed a win could be in the air, and with less than 1:30 minutes to go, they had whittled the Wildcats lead down to just 1.

 

Better late than never, the Lithuanians took the lead with 24 seconds remaining, the first time they had been ahead since very early in the 2nd half. Still, with just 3 players left on court, Kingston were thrown a lifeline. A foul on Kingston's Paul Chantler with just 18 seconds remaining gave the Wildcats man 2 free throws to even the scores at 61-61. Horribly for Chantler, he missed the 1st shot before hitting the 2nd, leaving Kingston a whisker away from winning back to back titles. Chandlers loss was the Lithuanians gain, and they managed a 61-60 win in a trully thrilling encounter that saw 5 different Kingston players get fouled out come the final buzzer.

 

MVP honours in the one went to Lithuanians E Janulevicius, who scored 15 points, grabbing an impressive 13 rebounds as well.

 

Kingston Wildcats   60 - 61   London Lithuanians