AFTER two defeats to Plymouth Raiders in the regular league programme, Pacers upset the formbook to claim the Exeter and District Women’s Basketball League Play-off title.

Raiders started well, with key point scorer M Gomez sinking a three-point basket, but this early setback did not deter the Newton girls, and with inside players R Short and K Lee taking on the scoring, they established a 7-5 lead.

However, from then on Raiders took control to end the first period 18-12 ahead.

At the start of the second quarter, a change in Pacers’ defensive formation stopped the flow of Raiders’ points while at the other end of the court, P Fahy scored five unanswered points to help close the gap to just one point.

Raiders, thanks to 11 points from D Caulwell, responded well, but Pacers kept in touch thanks to foul line baskets from L Mei-Yin and inside shots from R Short, so at half-time they were only 30-26.

The psychological boost for Pacers was that, although they were still behind, they had won this second period of play.

In the second half Pacers remained in a combined man-to-man/zonal defensive formation and Raiders seemed to run out of ideas on how to generate scoring opportunities.

The Newton girls, meanwhile, set up good offensive play with timely passes to penetrate the Raiders’ defence and, by the end of the third quarter, they had their noses in front at 41-37.

Raiders were not finished and the opening minutes of the final period belonged to them and they regained the advantage.

Pacers’ defence then took a stranglehold on the game and, combined once again with foul line baskets from L Mei-Yin and inside shots from R Short, they were able to create a sizeable 51-44 lead.

With the Pacers’ players beginning to see that the win was very much a possibility their confidence grew and a couple of perimeter baskets from S Lee took the game away from Raiders.

Pacers’ lead actually went into double figures with just a couple of minutes to play, but Raiders found one more basket to leave the final score 57-48.

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