Bulls come home with HBA 2022/23 senior women’s premiership after nail-biting game against Djinda

The Bulls have been declared the queens of the Harvey Basketball Association’s senior women’s competition, after being crowned the 2022/23 premiers.

In a match that was decided in the dying seconds, the minor premiers scraped across the line by the slimmest of margins.

It looked like it was the Bulls game from the start, with the team building a small two-point lead in the first half.

Caitlin Shales was doing a lot of the lifting for the team until she had to be subbed off hurt with seven minutes to go before the break.

Going into the second half, the Bulls held a thin 25-23 margin over Djinda.

The lead did not last very long once play resumed, with scores tied 30-all within three minutes of the first bounce.

A minute later, Djinda got ahead for the first time in the match with a small 32-30 lead.

After temporarily going back to a draw, Djinda slowly built up a bigger margin and were ahead by seven points with only 10 minutes of play left to go.

However, the Bulls gained momentum and narrowed the gap to 45-42 with five minutes left.

Within 90 seconds, the Bulls had clawed their way back ahead by one point, setting off a fierce contest in the final minutes.

With 120 seconds of play left, a shot by Sierraleone Simpson put Djinda back in front, again by only one point.

Sophia Tomas followed suit and extended Djinda’s lead to three points, only for Caitlin Shales to reduce it the margin back to one point with 70 seconds to go.

With only a minute left, the scores were Djinda 51-Bulls 48.

In the following thirty seconds, the leading team changed twice, before it became neck and neck with only 15 second remaining in the match.

A last-chance shot at the hoop by the Bulls got them over the line, winning the grand final 55-53.

Caitlin Shales was the highest point scorer for the winning side with 21 points, while teammate Sarah Donovan was a distant second with a total of 12.

However, it was Djinda’s Sierraleone Simpson who was the highest point scorer of the match, netting a total of 28 points, with a significant margin against teammate Sophia Tomas’ 13 point result.

Simpson finished the season as the competition’s leading point scorer with a total of 194 points.

In the end of season awards, Djinda’s Sophia Tomas was the runner-up for the most valuable player.

However, it was the Bulls’ Sarah Donovan who took home the most valuable player award for the season.

The grand final most valuable player award was received by Djinda player Ninnette Comito.