ToPo took the final series cleanly in three games.
Helsinki Torpan Pojat overwhelmingly took the first women’s Korisliiga championship in their club history, when they took the final series against Kotka Peli-Karhu with a clean 3–0 victory. On Tuesday, ToPo won the deciding game in Helsinki with a score of 92–85.
ToPo was now able to compensate PeKa, who won the previous five championships, for their 0–3 defeat in last year’s final series.
The third final was more even than the previous ones, although ToPo took over the game with a 19–2 start. The home lead stayed around ten points for the most part, but PeKa would walk four points away in the last quarter.
ToPo won the championship by a historic margin, winning the three finals with a total of 75 points. The most amazing line of statistics was found in rebounds, which ToPo outscored by as much as 167–75 in three games.
About Finnish basketball players played the longest foreign career Taru Tuukkanen now got to celebrate SM gold for the first time in his foster club.
The first gold came seven years ago in Hyvinkää’s Ponteva, and eight duller SM medals have already been accumulated.
“As a girl player, my goal was not a professional career, but to get into the ToPo women’s team, which was playing in the second division at the time. When “Family” (Kari-Pekka) Blade once cut a basketball sock to mark ToPo’s men’s championship, little Taru’s dream of a championship in ToPo has lived on for 30 years since then,” recalled Tuukkanen, who said that ToPo had only one focus this season.
“These finals were our only goal since last spring. Nothing else mattered. The team also remained practically the same”, stated 46-year-old Tuukkanen, who has not yet decided on the continuation of his career.
“This has been asked for the last 15 years. Roihu hasn’t gone out yet, but I haven’t made a decision yet.”
Tuukkanen ranked among the league’s most effective players in points, rebounds and assists this season as well.
In the final series, he grounded ToPo’s championship with an average of 18 points. In the deciding game, Tuukkanen excelled with a triple double, i.e. 13 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists.
“We had a really committed team this year. We have a bench of players who would be on another team in the opening game, but in front of the team, we have given up our own and created a team like this”, Tuukkanen was happy in an interview with Ruuttu.
Carmen Tyson-Thomas was the scorer of the match. He scored 26 points.
ToPo’s season was really strong. The team lost only two matches during the entire season. In addition to the Finnish championship, ToPo won the Finnish Cup.