WESTERN BUREAU:

NEWCOMERS UNIQUE Ballers, of Martha Brae in Trelawny, captured the 2008 Henkel Loctite/Western Basketball Asso-ciation Women's League when they outscored defending champions Lady Avalanche 46-43 in Sunday night's epic final at the Montego Bay Cricket Club Courts.

"This is a great victory for this team because this is our first season of competitive basketball," said Everton Travers, the coach of Unique Ballers. "We lost only one game for the entire season and that loss was to Lady Avalanche in the early part of the season," he said.

In a game in which they had to battle hard to counteract the rugged style of Lady Avalanche, Unique Ballers won two of the four quarters by 10-7 and 10-4 margins and lost the other two by 11-10 and 13-11 margins. The contest was so close that with a minute to go in the game, the score was locked at 43-43.

Classy

While they worked well as a team and got decent contributions from everyone, the diminutive Zandria Dell and the classy Tracy-Ann Kelly, the two outstanding players for Unique Ballers all season, had phenomenal performances. Dell finished with 15 points while Kelly had 14. Kimlin Matheson got nine points.

"Dell and Kelly are our top players and as the team leaders it is always important that they lead from the front," said coach Travers. "When we came under pressure, they were the ones who stayed composed and allowed us to get this exciting victory."