Crystal Blues pounce to soar to top four

A dominant display at both ends of the floor from newcomers Crystal Blues was enough to hold Raiders at bay and surge to the top four of the Albany Basketball Association women’s A-grade standings.

Crystal Blues dominated the second-half scoring 28-9 on Tuesday night to register their third win of the season, replacing Valkyries in the top four.

After leading by four points at the main break Crystal Blues scored the first 14 points of the last half to put the game to bed.

Georgia Clark, Telikah Collins and Valerie Corbett combined to score all 14 of those points as Raiders struggled to get the ball past halfway against the suffocating Crystal Blues defence.

With 10 minutes to play the margin had ballooned out to a game-high 23 points and it stayed that way, as Crystal Blues won easily 47-24.

Raiders gained more control of the ball late in the piece but Shianne Arthur ended the game with successive triples to ensured the 23-point result.

Tay Weeden helped keep Raiders in the contest in the first half knocking down 10 of her sides 15 points as they only trailed by four points at half-time.

Clark led the way for Crystal Blues with 14 points and Corbett added 10 for victors.

Tay Weeden was huge in a losing affair, hitting 15 points.

Abbi Gibson has led Kinjarling Storm to their eight victory of the season to all but guaranteed a top-two finish.

Gibson knocked down 13 points in the first half to set up 12-point win over Valkyries.

Valkyries could never recover from being eight points down at half-time as Gibson top scored in the 43-31 win with 22 points while Nardia Humphries added nine.

Indi and Tay Weeden led the way for Valkyries with 11 and seven points, respectively.