Hummingbirds’ title on the line in BEL finale

Defending champions Kingston Hummingbirds and the team they beat in last year’s final, Manchester Spurs, clash in Game Three of the best-of-three finals showdown at the National Indoor Sports Centre today, beginning at 6 o’clock.

It is a championship that both the coaches and players are hungry to win. Kingston Hummingbirds are chasing their third title, while Manchester Spurs are seeking their first.

Both coaches, Connie Francis of Manchester Spurs and the Hummingbirds’ Winston Nevers, are very confident going into the final showdown. “I’m a very confident coach and I always say ‘win’,” said Nevers. “It doesn’t make sense you go into a game and say you cannot win. I want to win and I’m going to win.” Plenty of silverware await the champions in Netball Jamaica’s semi-professional league, plus a first place cash award of $200,000 and medals. The runners-up will also receive medals, plus $130,000.

Th teams go into the decider after Kingston Hummingbirds won Game One 59-52 on Monday night and Manchester Spurs rallied to win Game Two 57-53 on Wednesday night.

There were not many things that Manchester Spurs did wrong on Wednesday and their head coach, Connie Francis, wants her team to remain consistent.

“It’s how we enter each quarter, I think we’ll have to improve on that. So we have to keep that rotation going and talk and continue to shoot well,” she said.

The teams are both strong through mid-court with Khadija Williams and Nicole ‘Girlie’ Dixon leading the charge for Spurs and Paula Thompson, Williams and Beckford driving Hummingbirds.

Loaded

Both teams are also loaded with national players, most of whom are the high quality shooters at either end of the court. On Wednesday they turned in a classy display that showed the capability and class that can make any a winner on a given day.

Manchester Spurs’ talented Gezelle Allison was on top of her game Wednesday and scored 41 points, which largely decided the outcome.

The same holds for Kingston Hummingbirds’ shooting trio of Sabrina Spence, whose conversion and scoring rate are generally high, which makes her a dangerous proposition. Shanice Beckford and Hasana Williams, who both missed only one attempt on Wednesday, are also very capable of high scoring performances.

“Saturday we’ll have to start sharp as although they have a lot of young players, our team appears to be the fitter because we continue to win the two last quarters each match,” said Nevers.

His team did not its accustomed high shooting percentage on Wednesday as Spence does not appear to have fully recovered from an ankle injury sustained at the back end of the preliminaries.