In the women’s basketball league, the top match and the derby of the capital region will be played on Wednesday, when ToPo, which started its season with seven wins, will face second-placed Tapiola Honga.
The spring silver team Torpan Pojat has made a convincing impression in the basketball league in the early season by winning all seven matches they played.
The head coach of the team Niko Kuusi says that ToPo’s excellent energy stems from good teamwork, which can be seen, for example, in the league’s clearly highest passing average (24.71). Second in the statistics is HBA-Märsky with a reading of 19.25.
Kuusi does not want to put any individual player on a pedestal because of the upbeat performances of the fall.
– Everyone has been able to take one step forward and thereby bring their best skills to the table, says Kuusi.
The fighting play of the team, which has been strengthened since last year, is at a good level. The composition of the team is diverse and wider than last year, and there have been no major changes in the players.
The team’s most effective scorer has been the US reinforcement who moved from EBT to ToPo for this season Carmen Tyson Thomaswho has averaged 21.3 points per game.
The 45-year-old center, playing in ToPo for the third year in a row, has grabbed the most rebounds Taru Tuukkanenaveraging ten per game.
The number one contender
Kotka’s Peli-Karhut has dominated women’s major league basketball in recent years, and the people of Kotka have celebrated the championship for no less than five seasons in a row.
However, the reigning champion has had a shaky start to the season with three wins and three losses. The team is currently fifth in the league.
Kuusi hopes that the team from Helsinki will be able to stop PeKa’s dynasty this season. ToPo, who conquered the Finnish Cup in January, won the teams’ first meeting this season 90–59.
– But even their team has changed quite a lot, and the season is long. We are aiming for the championship, but it is the result of a long process, and the process is still in progress at this point in the season.
Top fight
On Wednesday, ToPo will face another team from the capital region that has started cheerfully, when they will face the series runner-up Tapiolan Honka, which is the silver team of 2021.
Kuusi expects an entertaining struggle from the derby in the capital region.
– Meetings against Honka have always been emotional. Last spring, we played a quarter-final series against them, where we were better.
Honka holds the top spot in the three-point shooting percentage statistics of the series with a reading of 33.99. It has hit 69 of 203 shots from beyond the arc.
– Honka is a really strong throwing team, with several really good long throwers. They also want to keep up a lot of speed. They are a really fast, enterprising and struggling team, Kuusi describes tonight’s opponent.