Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeBASKETBALLSuns win to claim final piece of WBBL jigsaw

Suns win to claim final piece of WBBL jigsaw

Sevenoaks Suns avenged last year’s WBBL Cup Final heartbreak with a 74-64 win against a valiant Durham Palatinates at the Arena Birmingham on Sunday afternoon. The result sees Sevenoaks collect the final piece of the WBBL silverware jigsaw, having already won the Championship, Play-Offs and Trophy in previous seasons.

Sevenoaks produced a stunning third quarter – the 27 points scored by the Suns the most by any side in a quarter in WBBL Cup Final history – to blow the game wide open.

Veteran star Cat Carr gave a typically well-rounded performance with 14 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists but it was Janice Monakana who stole the show with a vintage display to earn her the MVP award. The star forward poured in a team-high 21 points and produced one of the all time great hustle plays to get her team going. 

After the game, which was shown live on BBC Sport, Suns head coach Len Busch, talked of his pride for the team and finally completing the WBBL jigsaw.

“I am really proud as the players showed they are mentally tough down the stretch. Durham made a nice run but Cat held us together and Janice hit some shots. It was a big team effort though and we showed our depth with many different contributions. After several years trying, it is nice to finally get our hands on the WBBL Cup, since we didn’t want it to become more of a ‘thing’ having previously seen it escape us”, he said.

MVP Monakana added: “We played together and especially when there was adversity as they threatened to come back near the end of the game. We stuck together and played right until the buzzer. This makes up for losing in the Final during the last few seconds last year to Sheffield. We really wanted to fight from the start today because of that and I think we did it”.

Captain Carr said of the win:”It’s been bitter-sweet after last year and now winning. We needed this and I think we fully deserved it to be honest. We knew what type of game they were after playing them in the league last weekend. We have completed the set now as we had not won the Cup before and everybody kept bringing it up, so it feels good to get it done”. 

Top scorers for Suns were Monakana (21), Carr (14) and Irene Garrido-Perez (12).

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