The Western Cape Tornados came out tops in a seesaw battle against the Mpumalanga Sunbirds after claiming a 39-36 win. The match went down right to the wire, but it was the Tornados who managed to pull away in the dying minutes of the game. Sunbirds’ Goalkeeper- Palesa Mbukwana scooped her 12th player of the match accolade following her sublime dominance in the Tornados shooting circle and stealing a couple of crucial intercepts. To date Mbukwana is the one player who has managed to scoop the most Player of Match accolades.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Cape Aloes were just too clinical against the Limpopo Baobabs and their lionhearted performance earned them a 54-38 win. The Aloes found their footing from the word go and were leading 18-7 in the first quarter. Baobabs’ coach- Anna Ledwaba made multiple changes in an attempt to find a working combination that can hinder the Aloes momentum, but the Eastern cape side was too adamant to produce a statement of their finals intentions subsequently setting up a division one final clash with the Tornados.
‘’We have beat the Aloes before so from a mental point of view we do have that over them. We are starting to peak now, and we are on our way to where we need to go so whoever comes we will take them on’’, Tornados’ coach- Danlee Matthews said. Aloes’ coach- Sameshia Esau says their intentions were clear from the onset, ‘’Having a rest day yesterday did the girls good and we couldn’t come all this way, being in the top four and not make it to the finals’’.
The 5th/6th playoff match saw the Northern Cape Diamonds beat the Eastern Cape Comets 57-50.
The Mpumalanga Sunbirds will take on Baobabs for the bronze medal tomorrow after both lost their respective matches. Both teams would want to finish on a high note after having a good run in this tournament.
