Warriors Women Clinch West Midlands / League Championship

Our Senior Women’s squad have clinched a first ever West Midlands League Championship following a memorable win over defending Champions Birmingham Force in the final match of their West Midlands Premier League Season at Sport TCAT on Thursday evening. (30 th April)

Both the Warriors and the Force had gone through their respective league campaigns losing only one game each, and both teams were fully aware that the fate of the Championship would be decided by the outcome of this crucial game.

Coach Terry Sanders’ team might have been expected to have a distinct psychological advantage over the Force following their comfortable away win two weeks ago in the two teams’ first meeting of the season. However the Force are highly experienced and were always dangerous opponents.

With Hayley Crosbie leading the way as she has done so much this season, the Warriors build up a 24 to 13 point lead in the first quarter. However, with our defence finding it increasingly difficult to control Force’s star guard Gemma Salmon, and our offence beginning to falter, the Force reduced the deficit to just 5 at the half.

With the momentum with them the visitors took the lead for the first time at the end of the third period. They then stretched away to lead by 63 to 56 as the game entered its final 5 minutes. At that point things looked bad for the Shropshire Girls. However, cheered on by a large home crowd, our girls then showed their true character. Hayley came back to life with 7 points in four minutes including 5 from 6 crucial free-shots to bring the score back to all-square at 68 as the final nail-biting last minute begun.

Rachel Barrow scored a crucial basket and captain Michelle Bartlett knocked down another free throw to give the Warriors a three-point lead with just seconds on the clock. The Force had the chance to send the game into overtime when Hasenar Aktar, a tremendous 3-point shooter, was fouled attempting a last ditch 3. To the Warriors relief she could only make one of her subsequent 3 frees and the final buzzer sent the home crowd and the players into raptures. .

Warriors scorers were Hayley Crosbie (25), Millie Reynolds (18), Sally Harris (12), Rachel Barrow (8), Michelle Bartlett 4, Sarah Collins (2) and Mary Hasenauer (2).

The Club wishes to congratulate Coach Sanders and his girls on this terrific achievement, which is a testimony to his and the girl’ hard word over the last couple of seasons. It is great that they have finally got their just rewards.

MATCH REPORT ONLINE NOW UNDER TEAMS!!!