LONDON LIONS EARN MAIDEN WBBL TITLE

London Lions secured the Women’s British Basketball League title for the first time.

 A 91-55 win over Essex Rebels left the capital side unbeaten with one game left and it completed the third leg of a possible domestic clean sweep following their triumphs in the WBBL Cup and Trophy finals.

Dominance, from start to the finish.

Having already picked up victories over Sheffield and Manchester earlier in the week, London came into Friday’s contest knowing all they needed was to win their game, or have Sevenoaks Suns lose to Leicester, in order to claim the league title.

The Suns topped the Riders but it was not enough, and they were dethroned.

Head coach Mark Clark said: “How do you feel when you win a Championship? That’s the thing that tells you how good you are for the whole season. That’s when you go to work everyday and at the end of the day, you’ve done it for the whole year, which is a great feeling, and it’s down to a lot of great people.

“We wanted to try and win it in the way we’ve played the whole year, with our tempo, smile on your face, trying to entertain, trying to get people the right ball at the right time, and in the first half in particular we had fun.

“We’ve got one more game to go unbeaten and then we’ve got another trophy to win, that’s where we’re going.”

Like they have done so many times this season, London exploded onto the court to start the game, running out ahead of the visitors 13-0, 10 of which came from Azania Stewart, who picked up a double-double of 16 points and 14 rebounds, and London managed to keep Essex off the scoreboard until almost six minutes into the game.

London extended their lead to 30 by the end of the first period, but the Rebels, who lately have been producing some impressive performances, began fighting back, and found themselves outscoring the home side by 17 points to 16, potentially signalling an impending comeback from the visitors in the second half.

But with a potential treble on the line, the Lions came out into the second half even more fired up then they were originally, extending their lead to 24 within the opening minute.

Lions managed to out run the visitors and put up another 12-0 run within the final three minutes of the third period to extend their lead to as much as 35, a lead which Essex just couldn’t cut enough in the final period and would see London run the clock down to the final buzzer to pick up their third league title of the season.

London centre Azania Stewart added: “We set that goal really early. We knew we had a really good team, but we also set ourselves a goal playing our style and our way, and not dropping and I feel like we’ve done that very, very well, especially coming down to the end tier. Just establishing our style, the ‘London Lions style’, so I’m really happy and proud of our team.

“It was not a goal for us to go undefeated, it was just ‘get all the silverware we could’ so we’re on number three and we’ve got one more to go. That was my goal, from even when we played in the Cup and the Trophy.”