The regular series winner ToPo leads the women’s Korisliiga final series with a 2–0 match win against the defending champion PeKa. The championship is on break for ToPo on Tuesday.
Emma Hyuppa,
Jari Kärkkäinen
Helsinki’s Torpan Pojat is just one win away from the Finnish basketball championship. ToPo beat Peli-Karhut in the second final of the Women’s Basketball League in Kotka with a score of 97–77.
ToPo leads the final series with match wins 2–0. Three wins are required for SM gold, so ToPo can decide the championship on Tuesday at Töölö Kisahalli in Helsinki.
After a fairly even opening quarter, ToPo led 24–18, but the second period was completely under the control of the visitors from Helsinki. The half-time readings of 36–59 showed that.
After halftime, PeKa closed the gap a bit, but in the final quarter, ToPo was better again. The point difference when the final buzzer sounded was 20 points.
– The match was decided by the intensity of the game. We play a faster game. On the offensive end, we get a lot of baskets under the basket, which is our strength, ToPo Sea of heather told.
IImar’I Thomas was ToPo’s power player with 28 points. Hero player Taru Tuukkanen recorded 19 points and ten rebounds. Randi Brown scored 24 points for PeKa.
Peli-Karhut has won five consecutive championships. A year ago, it beat ToPo in the finals directly with 3–0 victories. For ToPo, the championship would be the first. The championship last went to Helsinki in the 2005–06 season, when the Panthers celebrated the trophy.
– It feels great that we are already close to it (the championship). A few of us players have been in ToPo for five years, and we’ve come a long way towards that, said Kanerva, who sank 13 points.
ToPo was superior in the first match of the finals, which it won by as much as 46 points (98–52) over the Eagles.