Colliers Senior Women SLBA League & Cup Champions 2015
SL Colliers vs. Glasgow Fever
March 26th, 2015 @ The Lagoon, Paisley
SLBA Senior Women Cup Final
The Lagoon Leisure Centre was the venue for the SLBA Cup Finals weekend and the final game of the season for the Colliers against Glasgow Fever.
For some of the Colliers players, a trip to a cup final is nothing new, but for 5 players that only started playing competitive basketball 2 years ago this was a new exciting experience. Once the teams had been introduced in front of the crowd and the warm-ups were over it was time to get down to business.
Rhona Mitchell opened the scoring for the Colliers by getting to the free throw line and making both free throws. Fever started the game with a full court pressure defence looking to force some early turnovers but the colliers coped with the pressure well taking care of the ball. Captain Alison McCusker helped the Colliers open up their lead by scoring 11 of her 17 points in the first quarter.
With 3 minutes left in the quarter a technical issue with the scoreboard delayed the game for just over 10 minutes. With most teams this could cause a drop of intensity but it seemed to have the opposite effect on the Colliers, closing out the quarter up by 10 points.
Within minutes of the second quarter Jennifer Lynn committed her second foul which sent her to the bench for the remainder of the quarter. Kara Gough & Stephanie McLean stepped up to the mark and helped fill the gap left by Jennifer defensively. On the offensive end Alison Mitchell finally got herself on the score sheet contributing 8 of the Colliers 19 second quarter points, finishing the half: SL Colliers 37 - 21 Glasgow Fever.
In the third quarter the Colliers knew they couldn't let up defensively and give Fever a chance to get back in the game. After sitting for almost the full 2nd quarter Jennifer Lynn started the third scoring the first 4 points and making her presence felt defensively. The team managed to hold Fever to just 4 points in the third quarter, extending their lead to 57-25.
A 32-point lead allowed the Colliers coaches to get everyone in the game during the fourth quarter. This was signified in the last 3 minutes of the game when the 5 players that only started playing competitively 2 years ago, Stephanie McLean, Gemma Kelly, Kara Gough, Claire Brunton & Jill Ferguson were all on the court together!
The Colliers finished off the game winning by 30 points with everyone contributing towards the win and showing that their hard work throughout the season has paid off.
Final Score: SL Colliers 69 - 39 Glasgow Fever
After the final whistle the Colliers lined up to collect their winners medals for both the league and cup. Alison Mitchell was awarded the MVP of the cup final and also collected her award for Top Scorer of the Senior Women's League with an average of 16.82 points per game.
Alison commented: "It's been a really fun season with Colliers and I've enjoyed being part of this team so much.”
“It's great to see the development in the girls, and the improvements we have made has shown in a lot of our games this season on our way to winning the league and cup.
“I was so happy to be awarded the league top scorer and finals MVP, but have to give a lot of credit to my teammates and coaches for the continued hard work and effort we've put in as a group this season."
Assistant Coach Darren Sharp commented added: "It was great to see how far we've come in this season.”
“All the players have been committed, worked hard and today we saw the culmination of all their efforts.
“As my first season being involved with the coaching side of basketball I found it was very challenging but I couldn't have asked for a better team to be involved with.
“It was extremely rewarding seeing both individuals and the team develop and this is a great way to end off the season winning both the league and cup."