THE Women’s Fun Cup final produced an epic game of its own as Fellas started the game a daunting 24 points down.
Smart guard play from Amber and Jessie Carridge dented that lead while Sinners could only eke out some points from the free-throw line.
Sinners had brought all their big guns to the party though and Fellas were struggling to cope with the size and grace of Jackie Pickervance inside. However, Sinners weren’t converting their chances.
Star of the quarter was Fellas’ guard Danielle Murphy who nailed a three from the top of the zone and gave Sinners some match-up headaches around the perimeter.
For all their ball dominance though, the Sinners still held a 13-point lead at half-time.
Fellas turned that ball dominance into serious points in the third though, with Amber Carridge and Becky Dunne slicing through the paper-thin Sinners’ defence and Lauren Ellison marshalling a lockdown defence.
With three quarters done, the lead was gone and you would have thought Fellas would stride on to a comfortable win- no chance.
While Sinners can’t match the Fellas’ youthful exuberance and athleticism anymore, they make up for it with vast swathes of experience and they drew on all those reserves with Pickervance and Melanie Gribben finding their touch inside.
Dunne was having a monster rebounding effort at the other end though and the two teams paced each other for the next few minutes until a sweet lay-up from Jessie Carridge tied the game back up again.
Gribben’s free-throw gave Sinners a one-point lead again but it was quickly snatched back as Dunne made one of her own.
With under 30 seconds to go, Carridge was fouled going to the basket and iced both free-throws to give Fellas a two-point cushion.
Sinners would still have the final shot though, but an ill-advised long-range effort early in the shot clock fell short and Fellas scooped up the rebound to run the clock out and win the cup.