Tigers claw Hawks to claim sixth Championship
The Tigers took a commanding lead early and were never really challenged in the first title decider at the WA Basketball Centre.
Willetton has now won six championships, seeing it move level with Perry Lakes at the top of the title leaderboard.
Eighteen-year-old star Jasmine Hooper claimed the Most Valuable Player performance with an impressive effort on both ends of the court for the Tigers, finishing with 10 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Zoe Harper led Willetton with 16 points and also had nine boards, while Emma Lobb was next best with 13 points from just 15 minutes on the floor.
Belinda O’Halloran top-scored for Perry Lakes with 11 points, while Lyndal Gardner was next best with 10.
The Tigers took an 18-point lead before quarter-time and extended that to 29 before the half, led by Melissa Marsh, who had 11 first-half points.
Perry Lakes lifted its game slightly with a 10-0 run late in the third quarter to reduce the deficit to 24 at the final break, but Willetton held on with an 18-16 last period.
Tigers coach Glenn Clarke hailed his side’s work rate and determination.
“Back-to-back is hard but it’s awesome, such a great feeling to do it,” he said.
“It’s huge to win consecutive titles. The girls train so hard and they really deserve it.
“We had a lot of mismatches on the bigs and the idea was to get it to them. We sucked their defence into the bigs, brought it back out again and hit our shots.”
Perry Lakes coach Glenn Ellis said he’s disappointed his side couldn’t put in a better effort after its impressive season.
“I’m so proud of our girls looking back on this season. I told them to hold their head high because they put in an outstanding effort throughout the year. It was a very successful year for us,” Ellis said.
“Their bigs killed us, they were just too strong. The disappointing part is they out-rebounded, out-hustled and out-shot us in the first half. In the third and fourth quarters we came out and played well but it was pretty much over by then.
“Getting blown out was my biggest fear. We had such a great year but Willetton are the sort of team that come out when they put the ball in the hole, they can just blow you away.”
Article by Jacob Kagi
Photo by Grant Lauterbach
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