Lindo’s Tigers beat Storm 39-30 to claim a maiden Bermuda Netball Association Winter League championship on Saturday night.

In a thrilling encounter, both teams put on a show for the decent crowd that showed up to watch the match at Bernard Park, but it was Anthony Mouchette’s Tigers who prevailed to finish the season unbeaten on 36 points.

Storm, with ten wins and two losses, both inflicted upon them by Tigers, finished second on 32 points.

The Trott twins, Jahkenya and captain Jahtuerre, led the scoring for Tigers with 20 and 19 goals respectively. Nabiilah Nasir scored 24 times for Storm, Zakiya Durham chipped in with four points and Shenova Edwards was on target twice.

“It’s an amazing feeling to win the league undefeated,” Jahtuerre Trott said. “We've been chasing this trophy for years and to finally do it undefeated, we can't ask for anything more.”

Debré Evans, the Storm captain, while disappointed to finish runners-up, expressed pride in her team’s display on the night.

“We gave our all and that’s all I could ask for from my team,” she said.

“Everyone wanted it but Tigers wanted it more. We made some little errors in our attacking third and at the end of the day the attack is what wins the game, so there’s not much we could do.

“It was a good display of netball from both teams and it was nice to see all the spectators because netball doesn't get a lot of love.

“Both teams knew that they had to win so they gave it their all. I feel like Storm is always the underdog team, no one really expects us to win anything and we always give it our all.

“It’s nice to see someone else winning the league because Phoenix have been winning it for all these years. It shows that things can change, just like Tigers had a chance, we’ll have a chance eventually.”

Tigers dominated three quarters with Storm only outscoring them by one goal in the penultimate quarter. Defence proved vital for both sides, with Demiqua Daniels and Khianda Pearman-Watson jointly awarded the MVP accolade for Tigers, while Evans was adjudged her team’s best player.

Coaches Mouchette and Kimale Evans stuck with the same seven players the whole match, with the only tactical change coming when Evans chose Edwards to swap positions with Durham.

“We knew it was going to be a close encounter with both teams having a go at each other,’’ the Tigers captain said.

“Fatigue hit both teams in the third quarter, so we literally had to fight, pull everything out and win it. We wanted to make changes because we were tired, but our coach saw something else and he just told us to stick in.

“It got a little bit shaky in the circle as we were shooting, but our defence really helped us out to win the game.

“We badly wanted to win it for our coach because he’s been coaching us for over ten years. We knew we could win the league, our resilience and believing that we can win carried us through.”

It was a special night for the 32-year-old twins, as they became champions for the first time after more than a decade of trying. Also in the Tigers triumphant side was their younger sister Zariah Amory.

“My twin and I have been playing all our lives together,” Jahtuerre added. “When our younger sister got older, she started to play with us and it’s been nice having her.”

Meanwhile, North Village defeated St George’s 45-27 in an earlier match. The juniors were also engaged in the Who's Who tournament, where Phoenix Sparks won the 11 and under age group, Storm finished on top in the 14 and under division, while Phoenix Fire triumphed in the 18 and under tournament.