Basketball: Ajax seals top seeding

Ajax 1 (5-0) clinched the position of top seed in the women's autumn league with a crushing 80-52 win against Magic A (3-2) on Tuesday night.

The win ensured Ajax swept its five opponents in the round robin stage, outscoring them by a combined 414-220. Ajax has won the competition the past five years and will go into next week's semifinal full of confidence. The Magic, on the other hand, will limp into the playoffs on the back of consecutive losses. Ajax never trailed the Magic and simply outclassed it with slick ball movement and superior rebounding. The Magic had only six players on the night and struggled without the injured Kali Bennett in the paint.

It was a fine team effort from Ajax, which had four players score in double figures. Renee Johnson top-scored with 15 points and Samara Gallaher added 14. Janet Main and Jacqui Lodge each chipped in with 13. The first quarter was easily the closest quarter of the game. Kelly Nafatali kept the Magic in touch with 10 points, but Ajax took a 22-14 lead. That blew out to 47-28 at halftime as Johnson and Lodge piled on the points. The Magic mustered only six points in the third quarter, half of them from a Hannah Gentle bomb.

Despite the result being a formality, the Magic played its best basketball in the final quarter, scoring 18 points and never giving up. Nafatali (26 points) was outstanding for the Magic, scoring half her team's points and showing off an array of scoring shots. In the evening's other games, the Coasters (2-3) clinched a semifinal berth with a 73-38 win against Ajax 2 (0-5) and Varsity A (4-1) sealed the second seed with a 57-42 win against the Falcons (1-4). In next week's semifinals, Ajax 1 plays the Coasters and Varsity A plays Magic A.

- Robert van Royen.