London Lions continued their perfect WBBL season with a 92-52 hammering of basement side Cardiff Archers, on Sunday.
Even without the injured Chantel Charles and Jo Leedham, Mark Clark’s team were too strong for the Welsh side despite a good start from the visitors to the Copper Box.
Captain Shanice Beckford-Norton led the home side with 22 points and three rebounds while Holly Winterburn had six rebounds and as many assists to go with her 19 points. Cassie Breen came off the bench to add 15 points while Kennedy Leonard dished out ten assists to go with her seven rebounds and as many points as all nine Lions who stepped on the floor scored at least three points. Shannon Hatch led the visitors with 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
Hatch opened the scoring, and although scores from Shequilla Joseph and Azania Stewart gave the home side a brief lead, Cardiff controlled the opening stages. Kheing’s triple gave the visitors a 13-6 lead after seven minutes and it took a Winterburn trey to keep Lions within a point as Archers took a 15-14 lead into the final break
Paige Robinson tied the score as she split a pair at the foul line to open the second period and the visitors would never lead again as Beckford-Norton drove to the basket for a score before Breen drained a triple.
Beckford-Norton continued to do most of the damage for Lions before Breen rounded off their scoring with a lay-up and a triple to send them into the locker room with a 42-30 lead.
Winterburn buried a trey as Lions started the second half strongly with Beckford-Norton also scoring from downtown before converting from close range to make it a 20-pont game with 7:23 on the clock.
Beckford-Norton hit another three before Steph Umeh converted an old fashioned three-point play to help the home side take a commanding 68-44 lead into the final break.
That lead grew to 27 early in the fourth period as Leonard scored from the Land of Plenty and Lions were 79-51 ahead midway through the quarter before Winterburn’s triple wrapped up the scoring
