Jessica Franke prepares to launch a shot for Keilor. 67184 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By Liam Twomey
KEILOR are the Big V women’s basketball Division Two champions after completing a series whitewash against Blackburn on Saturday night.
The Thunder ran away with a 13-point win, 73-60 to secure the best of three series 2-0.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing though as the Vikings made a great start to the do or die final.
They opened up an early five-point lead thanks to some outstanding field goal shooting.
However, Keilor had been the dominant team in the competition all year and they weren’t about to stop now.
They hit back with 17 points in the second quarter, while restricting Blackburn to just 10, to go into half time with a two-point lead.
Despite the match being evenly poised at the break, the class of Keilor shone through in the third quarter as they made their move for the title.
They hit the scoreboard hard and made the most of their chances to hold a perfect 10 from 10 record at the free throw line.
Defensively, they also got on top, restricting Blackburn’s scoring ability and holding them to just seven points.
That lifted the overall margin to 14 and it proved too great a mountain for the Vikings to climb as the Keilor celebrations began.
Katherine Black was the star for the night, scoring 17 points, and wining 10 rebounds to be the most dominant player on the court.
Like they have done all season though, the workload was shared amongst the Keilor players with Karla Mavor scoring 13 points and Nala Tubb finishing off her fantastic season with 11.
Blackburn lacked the star power to match it with the Thunder across four quarters.
Bek Nathan was their leading scorer with 12 points.
The victory caps off a dominating season for Keilor who suffered only two losses on their way to the championship.
