Newham Youngbloods take U16 Girls National Cup behind Edwards double-double

Image Credit: Basketball England

A 26-rebound outing to go with 17 points from Leia Edwards saw Newham Youngbloods get a 65-55 win over Richmond Knights to claim the 2020 Under-16 Girls National Cup.

Edwards led a dominant performance on the glass for Newham, as they won the battle of the boards 65-40 and had answers for every Richmond rally down the stretch.

“I was confident with my girls and I told them this is your game, this is your time,” Youngbloods Head Coach Caroline Charles said.

“We’ve made it to the final four but a Youngbloods team has never made it to a Cup final we’ve always been beaten by Haringey or Sevenoaks but this year everything fell into place.

“I’m happy, we’ve won a cup, we’re champions. My girls are always champions, but now it’s in black and white, it’s official!”

Edwards’ MVP performance was supported by Ines Goryanova, who had 15 points and 9 assists, and Fatama Jemmah who had 11 points and 8 rebounds.

“At the beginning we were slow,” Edwards said. “I think because we were getting used to how the game was; we haven’t played with a big crowd like that for a while, but jus trying to find what we can do, then second half we came out and smashed it.”

Richmond captain Emily O’Connell top scored for the Knights with 21 points.

Box score.

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