It was a big night of finals basketball with an OT thriller and a few upsets to boot. Check out how it all played out last night at AWA in this weeks review!
CHAMPIONSHIP WOMEN
PIVOT CITY 60 – 52 SHARKS
Pivot City has taken care of Sharks to propel themselves into the Grand Final for 2022 with an 8-point win in their qualifying final. Jumping out to a 10-point lead at quarter time, the short-handed Sharks battled into halftime, outscoring Pivot by 16 to snag a 28-22 halftime lead. Evening up the score through the third Pivot City leaned on Eve Braslis who battled early foul trouble, along with Bree Matthews who were able to cut the deficit to 2 heading into the final quarter. Storming home in the final 10, Pivot City were able to outscore the Sharks by 10 to come home victors in the qualifying final. They will now await the results of next week’s game to see who they will match up for the flag.
WILDCATS 81 – 61 CC EAGLES
The Wildcats have come away 20 points winners in a minor upset to advance to the second elimination final against the Sharks after Poppy Stevens exploded to get the Wildcats across the line. A close first quarter saw the Wildcats hold a 1-point advantage before a scoring rampage in the second saw the Eagles struggle to get on the scoreboard being outdone by 15 in the quarter. Connecting on 14 threes to the Eagles 2, the Wildcats were able to hold off a 3rd quarter charge from the Eagles before closing out the final quarter on 20-9 to secure the win. Poppy Stevens led the game with 27 points while Sarah Elsworthy backed her up well with 16. Ashlea Withers was best for the Eagles with 26.
CHAMPIONSHIP MEN
WILDCATS 106 – 102 CC EAGLES
Wildcats have remained undefeated and are through to the Grand Final of Winter 2022 after an impressive OT win against the CC Eagles in round 1 of the Finals. A physical game in which both teams found themselves in foul trouble, It was as tight as could be through the entire game. With neither team leading by more than 3 at any of the breaks, with minutes to go in the game it looked like Christian College had pulled away just enough to sneak by for a victory. With one possession left Phil Renteria got open for a mid-range pull-up that wasn’t able to drop, with the Eagles grabbing the rebound it looked all but over before a timely steal from Nick Owusu regained the possession for the Wildcats. Turning to the calm hands of DeMarcus Gatlin, the star guard drove through the key to hit a tough floater to send the game to OT as the buzzer expired.
Hitting OT the two teams continued to keep it close through the extra 5 minutes however it was the Wildcats who were able to pull away for the 4-point win with some timely buckets from their savvy veterans. Gatlin was on fire in this one leading all scorers with 31 while Nick Owusu and Phil Renteria added 24 each for the Cats. For the Eagles, it was Nathan Freind leading the way with 8 threes and 26 points total.
YMCA 94 – 74 PIVOT CITY
YMCA have advanced to their second elimination final where they will face the CC Eagles after downing Pivot City last night. Starting out Hot the Y grabbed an 18-point advantage through the first quarter as Pivot struggled to get the ball to go through the net early. Cutting the deficit to 11 at half time Pivot looked like they were pushing for a comeback with the lead getting to as low as 6 through the third. Before Pivot had the chance however the Y grabbed consecutive stops and fast break scores to push the lead back out to double digits. From here on it was all YMCA as they were able to put away Pivot by 20. Leo Burgess led the way with 20 while Max Kos tried his best with 26 for Pivot.
That wraps up round 1 of the senior finals fixture, it was great to see so many of you at the games last night and we hope to see you over the next two weeks as we look to crown the 2022 Winter Champions!
