Rachael Thomp­son-King

Vet­er­an play­er Eu­phemia Hug­gins used her years of ex­pe­ri­ence to win Po­lice an­oth­er ti­tle in the Courts All Sec­tors Net­ball League, the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion knock­out ti­tle. Her team's 34-28 vic­to­ry came against Fire in the fi­nal at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Tacarigua on Tues­day night. Last Thurs­day, Po­lice copped the Jean Pierre Chal­lenge Tro­phy, the fire­women be­ing its vic­tims on that oc­ca­sion al­so. Hug­gins, the goal-shoot­er, was left to ac­com­plish the task by her­self in the cir­cle when her goal-at­tack Patrice Ed­wards was eject­ed from the match.

She got in­to an al­ter­ca­tion with Fire goal-de­fence Gabrielle Sel­mon and both had to leave the match. In­ter­na­tion­al um­pire Anne-Marie Dick­son-Lewis, the match of­fi­cial was forced to en­force the rules of the com­pe­ti­tion and dis­missed the two play­ers. "Both play­ers were put out of the match for in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iour dur­ing the sec­ond half," said Dick­son-Lewis. The mat­ter is to be in­ves­ti­gat­ed as the two play­ers brought the game in­to dis­re­pute. Be­fore Ed­wards, who has been a key play­er for the grey and blue since her ad­di­tion in mid-sea­son, left the match, she net­ted 15 goals from 22 at­tempts for the law of­fi­cers.

Her team­mate Hug­gins was able to hold her own and con­nect­ed 19 off 28 to lead the cham­pi­on, who led 16-13 at the half. Joelisa Coop­er, (the star) in Fire's semi­fi­nal 42-23 win over De­fence Force which pre­ced­ed, was the main shoot for her team with 16 off 21. Ear­li­er she post­ed a mighty 33 from 36. Po­lice ad­vanced in­to the fi­nal with a nar­row three-goal (29-26) tri­umph against the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T (UTT). The dis­ci­pli­nary com­mit­tee will meet on the mat­ter to de­cide what ac­tion will be tak­en against the two play­ers as to whether or not they will be al­lowed to play for the rest of the sea­son.

That de­ci­sion will like­ly come lat­er to­day as teams in both the Cham­pi­onships and Al­ter­na­tive Di­vi­sions will com­pete in the Open Knock­out com­pe­ti­tion start­ing at 5 pm. The 20th edi­tion of the ASNL will close on March 30.

Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion Di­vi­sion­al Knock Out Semi­fi­nals

UTT 26 (Saman­tha Wal­lace 18/29, Janelle Bark­er 8/13) vs Po­lice?29 (Patrice Ed­wards 16/21, Shiv­aughn Skeete 0/0, Eu­phemia Hug­gins?13/20). Half time: 13-12 UTT.

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Fire 42 ( Joelisa Coop­er 33/36, K'lene Lewis 1/6, Si­mone Mor­gan?8/15) vs De­fence Force?23 (Anas­ta­sia Wil­son 24/34, Car­lette Nurse 1/2). Half time: 18-18.

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Fi­nal

Po­lice?34 (Eu­phemia Hug­gins?19/28, Patrice Ed­wards 15/22) vs Fire 28 (Si­mone Mor­gan 12/20, Joelisa Coop­er 16/21). Half time 16-13 Po­lice.