Ipswich overcome Thames Valley Cavaliers to win national basketball final

A basketball team came from nine points down at the end of the first quarter to secure a national championship.

Endeavour Ipswich Basketball Club's senior women beat Thames Valley Cavaliers to claim their first WNBL National Cup final victory since the 2017/2018 season.

The match at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester finished 96-90 to the Suffolk side.

The most valuable player award went to the Ipswich captain, Harriet Welham.

The teams appeared evenly-matched throughout the game before Ipswich pushed on for victory.

The Ipswich captain Harriet Welham led the scoring with 34 points, dropping a number of crucial buckets to go with five assists, four rebounds and four steals.

Welham said "words can't explain" her feelings on lifting the National Cup trophy for the second time.

Of the young talent in her team, Welham said: "I coached these guys since they were 12 - no-one does it like Ipswich, the pathway, the development, it's definitely special."

The team was nine points down after the first quarter but did not lose heart.

"We pride ourselves on being 'a fighter', and that's what we did today," Welham added.

The Ipswich head coach, Nick Drane, said he "couldn't be prouder" of his team.

"I don't think we were absolutely brilliant today, but, when it mattered, we were superb," he said.

"Everybody stepped up, everybody did what they needed to do."

He praised the contribution of Christabel Osarobo, who went off the court after being fouled but then returned.

"We said at half-time that we needed to keep Christabel on the floor and the girls needed to protect her from fouls.

"We were up by 10 in the minutes that Christabel played in the first half so that shows how valuable she is for this team," Drane said.

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