New women’s A-grade premiers after red-hot shooting display from Valkyries

Valkyries claimed their maiden Albany Basketball Association women’s A-grade premiership to cap a superb second season in the competition on Friday night. Brodie Dixon starred in the win as she knocked down five triples to help her side run out six-point victors in the grand final against Crystal Blues. Valkyries led by a single point at half-time and had all the answers in the second half on their way to a 41-35 triumph. Dixon knocked down her second three of the game to start the second half but Crystal Blues fought back to quickly snatch back the advantage and at one stage led by five points. The momentum changed again, though, as Valkyries scored the next 11 points, including two more long bombs from Dixon, in a decisive period in the decider. Dixon’s fifth three pointer of the game helped her side extend their advantage to eight points and they were able to hold Crystal Blues at bay for the remainder of the match. Valkyries lost Jorja Ward to a serious ankle injury with four minutes left after she hit a tough layup but they held firm despite the best efforts of Crystal Blues star Casey Griffiths (15 points). Macy Lane was named grand final most valuable player after her strong rebounding performance and four points. Dixon was a constant threat from deep and was well supported by Narelle Humphries (nine points). Griffiths was sensational in the fist half as she helped Crystal Blues go on an 11-0 run to start the match. However Dixon hit her first three and that ignited her team into action. Isabella De Giambattista added six points and grabbed plenty of rebounds for the losing side while Shianne Arthur chipped in with six points. Valkyries coach Belinda Buitenhuis said she was extremely proud of her team. “It’s really important to win a premiership, they are all really young girls and this is only their second season together and for them to bond and to win it shows that all the hard work paid off,” she said. “In the last few weeks they really put their heads down and worked really hard. “I wasn’t confident coming in, I was concerned we might have played our grand final a couple of weeks ago because they played amazing, but I just knew if they stuck to the game plan they would win, it’s all defence, defence is what won it for them. “There is never any problems, they have the best attitudes and they want to win but to win they know what they have to do, they need to follow instructions, they look after each other, they are just an amazing bunch of girls.” Crystal Blues coach Greg Collins said it was a disappointing end to the season. “I think we just had a run in the middle that didn’t go our way, we had a few bad decisions, few bad passes and tried to mix the defence up and it didn’t work out for us as well as we’d hoped,” he said. “We thought we could bounce back, it didn’t go the way we wanted but we certainly thought we were competitive enough. “All the girls all played their role and a few things didn’t go quite where we would have liked them to go.” GRAND FINAL BOX SCORE Valkyries 41 (Brodie Dixon 17 points, Narelle Humphries 9, Jorja Ward 5, Macy Lane 4, Tayeesha Weeden 3, Enya Marques 2, Indi Weeden 1) def Crystal Blues 35 (Casey Griffiths 15, Shianne Arthur 7, Isabella De Giambattista 6, Telikah Collins 4, Tamara Ditchburn 3)