Holders London Lions face familiar opponents when they take on Leicester Riders in Sunday’s WBBL Trophy final.
The teams met in January’s WBBL Cup final in Birmingham, when the Lions won 95-42 to post the biggest winning margin in a WBBL final.
London went on to win all four WBBL titles last season and are strongly tipped to repeat that this season.
They also set a WBBL record with that victory for the longest unbeaten run, standing at 50 games.
They then raised eyebrows by removing the head coach responsible for that streak, former Great Britain women’s coach Mark Clark, and replaced him with highly rated Greek coach Stella Kaltsidou, whose first game in charge saw the run ended by Caledonia.
“I arrived on the Thursday and we played on Saturday and we lost it,” she said flatly. “But basketball is like that – losses like that can wake up the team and get them motivated again.”
Lions are still on course for repeating their feat of sweeping all four major titles this season and have a wealth of British talent.
Holly Winterburn, named Most Valuable Player in January’s final, was one of the most influential players in Great Britain’s recent wins that saw them qualify for this summer’s EuroBasket finals, while Azania Stewart, Chantel Charles and Shanice Beckford-Norton are also GB squad regulars.
“The girls are working hard,” said Kaltsidou. “You cannot change a lot of things on a team that is playing well. Coach Clark was doing a very good job and I just want to continue that.”
Leicester’s best player in the WBBL Cup final was American point guard Oliana Squires, who scored 23 points in the defeat and forms a useful back-court partnership with GB international Hannah Robb.
“It’s a chance for us to redeem ourselves so we’re really excited,” said Squires. “We pride ourselves on being a good defensive team – if we lock in on our assignments we can compete.”
