Panthers Women and Cougars Men are the 2014 Winter South East Coast Basketball Premiers. The two Grand Finals were hosted by the Millicent Basketball Association last Wednesday night after the Millicent Women won the second semi-final against Cougars.

Panthers Women finished in third place on the premiership table after a very shaky start to the season when they forfeited the first two games because of lack of numbers.

Despite playing with the bare minimum of players most weeks, they developed confidence in each other and a degree of self-belief, which were evident in their solid grand final performance against the minor premier, Millicent, on their home court.

The Women’s final opened with end to end transitions and few conversions. Millicent had plenty of possessions but only troubled the scorer twice. Panthers faired a little better through Kelly Lockwood, Alycia Close and Brianna Walters. A Walters’ long range prayer found the hoop on the first quarter buzzer to set the score at 12-4.

The second stanza was an even low scoring slog resulting in a half time score of 23-16.

The momentum lifted a little in the third quarter as Walters took a grip on Panthers’ offence to score 9 points on the back of some strong clean-up work from Brenna McKay and sister Eilish, who was effective with her usual “one percenters” to create opportunities for her side.

Panthers managed to hang on to a lead in the mid-teens in the final quarter as Lockwood, playing with new found confidence, was active in offence. Not to be denied, Millicent finished with a flurry of points from the energetic Erin Watson. Lockwood however steadied her side with a three to secure the title for Panthers, 55-44 with seconds on the clock. Walters scored a game high 19 points, Brenna Mckay chipped in with 12 and Lockwood 11. Alex Walker and Watson led the scoring for Millicent with 11 and 10 respectively. Walters was awarded the MVP for the title game.

Men’s minor premier, Bulldogs’ flag hopes took a nose dive when injured Matthew Berkefeld did not suit up on Wednesday night. This absence placed added responsibility on brother, Simon. Typical of his ability and dedication, Simon nevertheless led Bulldogs in a strong start. Sam Stafford was also impressive for Cougars in the opening minutes when he nailed three threes. Kane deWit and Brendon Armitage lifted the momentum for Cougars and set up a two point lead at the main break as Bulldogs struggled to find support for Berkefeld.

In the opening minutes of the all-important third quarter, Zach deWit broke the game open for Cougars with three three pointers and control from here on. Stafford and Kane deWit continued as consistent scorers while Bulldogs’ scoring options all but dried up. At three quarter time it was game over as Cougars led 70-53.

Bulldogs deserve credit for their “never beaten” approach in outscoring Cougars in the final 10 minutes, when 6 of their players scored. Meanwhile Kane deWit and Stafford showed fine touch from the perimeter. Stafford’s game high 32 points in Cougars’ 86-76 win earned him the MVP Award for the final while Berkefeld finished with 26 in a tough “night at the office”.    

There are now several weeks’ break before the 2014/15 SECBL Summer season gets underway on Wednesday October 15^th.