Women's Trophy - UWIC II, Durham to meet in Final
17th January 2011by Dave Ryan
UWIC Archers II and Durham Bobcats will meet in the Women's National Trophy Final at the Nottingham Wildcats Arena on Sunday February 6 after double digit road wins in their semi-finals on Sunday.
The Archers won 57-45 at Leicester Riders, while the Bobcats returned from Wellingborough Phoenix with an 82-72 victory.
In Leicester, the Archers never looked back after a 17-9 first period put them in charge against the Riders. That lead grew to 33-18 at half-time before a strong third period saw Leicester narrow the gap to 44-33 at the final break.
There was little to choose between the sides in the final period, with the sides sharing 24 points as Archers moved into the title game.
Danielle Jennings led UWIC with 14 points, with Joanne Raper adding 12 and Joelle Moreno nine. Stacy Zamroz led all scorers with 21 points for the hosts, but only Sarah Lockton joined her in double figures.
In Wellingborough, the home side found no answer to American Leah Rush as she poured in 39 points and added 16 rebounds as the Wildcats continued their excellent season.
The home side led by as many as six in the first period before Durham cut the deficit to 18-17 at the opening break. Rush opened the second period scoring and the visitors led for most of the quarter without pulling away, and Naomi Sterling's three saw Phoenix lead 43-42 heading into the locker room.
The third quarter saw Bobcats start to pull away as a Rush basket put them 48-47 up with three minutes gone and Noelia Cachiero's shot put them 59-49 up with 3:14 on the clock.
However, a 9-3 run capped by a pair of Jordan Elliott-King free-throws saw Wellingborough cut the deficit to 62-58 going into the final break.
A single Sterling free-throw made it a three point game with the first score of the fourth, but that was as close as they came as Durham scored 12 unanswered points to wrap up a place in the final.
Cachiero added 20 points and eight assists for Bobcats, while Katrin Hulme had 11 points and as many boards.
Naomi Sterling had 20 points for Wellingborough, with Angelina Browne-Akinyemi adding 18.