Nottingham, CoLA to meet in WEABL final in unbeaten showdown

By Bradley Gains on March 24, 2022

Nottingham Academy and City of London Academy will go head-to-head in next week’s WEABL Championship game after both sides maintained their perfect records in the 2021-22 season.

The Northern Conference and Southern Conference winners battle for the title in Manchester on Wednesday March 30th with the aim of being crowned unbeaten winners.

Maisie Evison top scored for Nottingham with 15 points in their 63-55 victory at home to Oaklands with fellow Hoopsfix All-Star Classic alumni Mariam Olawoyin adding 14 points. German junior international Praise Egharevba netted 13 points and could play a vital role in the final with a key inside battle in store.

“We are really excited to be in finals,” said Evison. “We have had this goal since we first got together as a group. But we know we aren’t finished yet, we still believe we have more to give and we are locked in on giving our best performance of the season this Wednesday.”

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CoLA, meanwhile, set out their intentions with a dominant 30-6 opening period against Copleston on the way to an emphatic 71-41 triumph. The visitors had a game-high 27 points from Olivia Forster, but were unable to pull off the upset in a repeat of the Under-18 National Cup final.

“Credit to our opponents – they didn’t stop fighting until the end and somehow we know they’ll be a top team again next year,” said head coach Jackson Gibbons.

“I thought our girls came out with a fire in them, they’ve been pretty locked in over the past few weeks and they kept reminding themselves they have to go and earn this victory. Because of the quick start I didn’t rotate the players well after the first period and so it wasn’t one of our best performances.

“Nonetheless, a win is a win and we are looking forward to the final next week, where we know we will be facing a formidable team who are also unbeaten – so it’s all to play for.”

Molly Lavin led a balanced scoring attack for the hosts with 11 points as they now look to add another WEABL title to their collection.

The WEABL final will tip off at 2:30pm next Wednesday at the National Basketball Performance Centre, in Manchester.

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