A Christmas miracle as Chapman Valley take down Trades to get their first win of the season

There was some joy at last for the Chapman Valley Warriors who have endured a tough season after they got their first win in an outstanding performance against Trades.

In the final round before Christmas, the Warriors got an early present as they recorded a 58-53 win to get them on the board this season.

The Warriors have been off the pace all season with their best performance up to this point being a 10-point loss to the Trades in round five and were facing a Trades side who had just knocked off Olympians last week.

But the Warriors had found something, as while they perhaps lacked the class of their opponents they dragged the game down into a dogfight with both sides working hard on defence.

There were plenty of turnovers and clean passages of play were at a premium as the two sides traded baskets to sit at 24-all at half-time.

Mikala Van Niftrik was leading the way with 10 points for Trades with Natalie Caruana from Warriors next best with 7.

The second half continued in the same way as neither side was able to break away. This suited the Warriors who were giving themselves the best chance to win all year.

Then for a few minutes, they lost their way as Kayley King, Trades’ hero from last week, managed to get off the chain and give the Trades a six-point lead as the Warriors committed some poor turnovers and looked to be cracking under the pressure.

A timeout was called and the Warriors were delivered an almighty fire-up from the coaches telling them they needed to want this win and to go hard.

It had the desired effect as Warriors came out sharper and managed to tie the game back up with the two all square at 53 points with just under two minutes to go.

Both sides then missed some shots as the tension rose with the feeling that there was only one more basket left in the game.

As it turned out there were two and both went to the Warriors. They hit a two before a miss at the other end allowed them to chew time off the clock and hold on to get a drought-breaking win.

Caruana was excellent in what was her best performance of the season with 18 points with support from Lilli Worth (12).

Kind fought hard for Trades with 16 points and Van Niftrik with 15 but they will be disappointed not to be able to back up their performance from last week.

In the later game Pumas and Olympians faced off with the Octopuses recording a win 56-48.

The two sides played the game of the season when they last met in round five when the Pumas went down by two points in overtime with a deep three-point attempt just missing on the buzzer.

Once again the Olympians seemed to bring out the best in the Pumas as the two sides were level at half-time at 29 apiece. Sienna Forsyth (7) and Olympian Kylie MacDonald (8) led the way for their respective teams.

They traded baskets and fouls in the second half after both sides had racked up full counts in the first as the game continued to be tight with both sides having off-shooting nights.

With 2½ minutes left the game was still up for grabs with just three points in it but the Pumas hit a wall and would not score again.

Some fouls in the closing stages as Pumas reached a full count again in the second half allowed Olympians to control the ball and inflate the margin to an eight-point victory.

MacDonald finished as top scorer with 16 while Gemma Dix who was relatively quiet by her standards found some run in the second to finish with 14 points.