The celebration went into the night in Halifax.
The preparation, meanwhile, begins in earnest this week for the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association.
After the Halifax Hornets defeated rival Halifax Thunder, 87-84 in a tremendous display of basketball to win the first-ever Legacy Cup thoughts turned to next season.
From all indications the six inaugural franchises will return including Hornets, Thunder, Windsor Edge, Fredericton Freeze, Moncton Mystics and Port City Fog of Saint John.
Will there be company next season?
‘We know there is interest in new teams coming into our league, but we’re going to breathe for a couple of weeks after a dynamic season,’ said MWBA commissioner, Tasia McKenna. ‘The league started May 14, but so many people did an incredible amount of work for over two years to get us to this point.’
Did McKenna see the MWBA success coming, success that saw huge crowds in all six centres and a plethora of media and social media attention.
‘When the rosters started to be formed, we knew we had the makings of an incredibly competitive league and that’s what unfolded,’ McKenna said. ‘There was competitive balance for the vast majority of games and knowing all of those involved, they will be looking at their rosters already for 2023.’
McKenna said Prince Edward Island needs to be represented.
There is serious interest on PEI and Truro has also come to the table with interest.
The league could run a two divisional format with four Nova Scotia teams and a PEI/New Brunswick division, but all of that is pure speculation right now.
‘We look forward to feedback from all teams and we’ve taken plenty from our fans, too, which is important,’ McKenna said. ‘We made some mistakes and need to tighten some constitutional wording, but the framework has been built to move forward.’
– There was plenty of MWBA fun this season (Tanya Everett Photography)