Honka start the year with a win

Road led yesterday to another Women’s Korisliiga game, this time in Tapiola (well – it was the only game of the day!) with Honka facing the Helsinki Basketball Academy.

Arriving to the venue, first thing I noticed that the away team had only SIX players on their roster for the game.. initial thoughts.. Oh boy, this is gonna be a walkover for Honka… but then, thoughts turned to few other games in Korisliiga where one team is full strength and the other has 6 or 7 players, and the team with less players has won few of these. So.. never judge a game before it has been played!

The game did end up being closer than I had first thought – but once again the duo of Madelynn Utti and Cierra Walker were too much for the opponents to handle, Utti ending with an impressive 21points and 21 rebounds double-double at the end of 40 minutes.

For HBA – three players ending up with over 37 minutes of game time, with the other three not much behind, Albina Syla missing her third double-double by just a single rebound, where as Elina Aarnisalo did not enjoy her return to her old home arena, as she was left for the FIRST TIME this season in single digits on points – only making 2 out of 23 from the field, a rare off day for the player who averages around 20 points per game.

From photographers point of view – entertaining game and also the last game in either men’s or women’s series before the Finnish Cup Final 4 weekend from Friday-Sunday this week.

Plenty of stop start in the games at the moment, with Xmas/New Year break, now the Cup weekend, then in February couple of International windows..

But – the business end of the season is fast approaching and I for one.. can’t WAIT!!!

Main point for myself to visit the game was to get footage for a personal project – but snapped few photos and took a post game interview with Cierra Walker on video – always nice to get material and get to talk to the players.