Archers into the National Cup Final

Cardiff Met Archers Women’s Basketball team are headed to their second National Cup Final in as many years following a convincing 77-99 semi-final defeat of Londoners, Barking Abbey Crusaders on their own court.

The circumstances in which the win was secured made the victory particularly impressive considering that the team travelled with just seven players, were an assistant coach down and had a handful of players missing due to injury, illness and prior commitments. The Archers squeezed out the opening quarter with a 15-13 lead as both teams worked hard on the defensive end to keep the score low, however, it was the second quarter which really set the tone and opened up the game. With both teams beginning to find ways to score, the Archers went into the half time break with a promising 35-51, double digit lead. With tensions rising in the Barking Abbey camp, the third quarter saw another seven points added to the lead as the under-sized Archers continued to be ruthless at both ends of the floor, converting 3-point plays for fun and taking full advantage of their strength at the guard positions. With a 23 point lead going into the final quarter the game was all but over as the Archers were able to give all players the opportunity to see court time and eventually closed out the game and secured their place in the 2015 National Cup Final with a 22 point winning margin.

Scoring was led by player/coach Stef Collins who sunk a staggering 30pts, closely followed by Sport Scholars Judit Fritz and Jess Jenkins who added 26 and 25, respectively.

The Archers will be looking to put last years’ disappointment to rest when they lost to Team Northumbria 66-64, thanks to a heart breaking winning basket on the final buzzer. On route to the final were comfortable victories over Team Solent Suns, Manchester Mystics and Barking Abbey; the team will now face Sevenoaks Suns on Sunday 25^th January 2015  at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

We caught up with the team to hear their thoughts on the Semi-final win and what to expect from the final:

Scholar and shooting guard, Jess Jenkins: “Was a great win for us, we had a goal to get back to the cup final and that kept us focused during the game.  We kept talking about not letting them make a run to get back in the game and we were able to answer any small runs they had.”

Watch this space to hear how the team got on in the Final!