Lady Cavs rule

THE DEBATE over women’s basketball’s best player is still open.There are no such questions about its best team.She ceded the latest battle with Toni Atherley but Jamila Studer’s Mpact Lady Cavs won the war again, as Station Hill seized their tenth league title following a 71-57 finals-clinching win over rivals Act II Popcorn Clapham Bulls in Sunday’s decisive Game 3 at the YMCA.The riveting rivalry simply gave way to the Cavs’ divine dynasty, which has toppled Clapham in three straight finals appearances and accounted for nine successive league championships and 17 trophies overall.League’s best And the latest of which came despite a career finals-low eight points from the flu-ridden Studer, who lost the match-up of the league’s best against Atherley (20 points) in her worst performance in a Station Hill jersey.But the Cavs survived another potential dethroning and a torrid third quarter from Atherley that threatened to take the game and title away from the champs.The high-scoring combo guard exploded for 13 points in the period and nine of the Bulls’ last 13 in that quarter, helping Clapham erase all but one of a menacing 14-point (36-22) half-time deficit.At one stage Atherley scored seven unanswered points, knocking down a contested trey and beating Studer on successive drives, before her dramatic buzzer-beating pull-up jumper and a Sade Clarke lay-up pulled Clapham within one (46-45).But hers wasn’t the performance of the game. Not even close.Astrid Alleyne picked up where she left off in the first half, having six of her game-high 27 points early in the fourth as part of a 19-6 run, as Atherley’s outburst merely delayed the inevitable.The Cavs ended up scoring four straight to end the third, before Studer briefly shook off her slump to help Alleyne dominate the paint and push the lead to an unassailable 13 (64-51) with 3:15 to play.And it wasn’t just at the offensive end that Station Hill did their damage, with Atherley being denied the ball for a crucial two-minute span prior to the combo guard getting a brief rest three minutes into the fourth.MeltdownThe result was a complete meltdown in Bulls’ offence, as centre Shakira Shorey continually came too far out on the perimeter for the ball while Clarke struggled to create for her teammates.Atherley’s return did nothing to stem the tide either, rather allowing the Cavs to further extend the advantage when she was forced to take quick shots with time running out on the Bulls.It was reminiscent of the Bulls’ woeful second quarter, where Clapham could only manage a season-low four points while Station Hill transformed a back-and-forth contest (21-18) into a lopsided blowout (36-22).Had it not been for their stifling half-court defence, Clapham probably would have trailed by as many as 20 in that miserable period entering the break.Awful jobBut Shorey just never established herself in the post while the Bulls did an awful job protecting the ball and an even worse effort in keeping Alleyne off the offensive glass.“We are known for our inside play and I knew I just had to bring it,” said Alleyne, who averaged a series best 22.7 points.“I was a little scared after losing Game 1 but we knew once we got our inside game working that we would be impossible to beat.”Wanda Agard-Belgrave and Tamisha Flatts added 11 points apiece for Station Hill, who will be looking for their eighth double in this week’s knockout tournament.Clarke had 13 points for the Bulls and Shorey ten.