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Leicester Riders won the WBBL Trophy for the third successive season, beating Durham Palatinates 70-66.

Sara Hinriksdottir led Leicester's scoring with 23 points and Kate Oliver added 17 as the Riders survived a nervous last minute to secure their hat-trick of title wins.

Betsy Macdonald scored 16 points for Durham and Nicolette Fong added 14.

Riders' win is likely to be the last WBBL game for a while with the league set to be shut down by coronavirus.

Leicester had seemed to have the win in their sights several times. Ten successive points from Hinriksdottir, who was named most valuable player, gave them a 12-0 run to lead 38-26, only for Fong's six points in a row to reel them back in again.

Leicester began the second half with an 8-2 burst to lead by 12 again, only for Durham's Kara Elderkin, Fong and Dee Hayward to reel them back in and take a brief lead after an 18-5 burst that clearly rattled the Riders.

Instead, Leicester came into the last minute of the game with just a two-point advantage and when their last offence was timed out, Durham had a chance to steal the game with 21 seconds remaining.

When Claire Paxton's three missed, it left Jennifer Ashton with two free throws to complete the win for the Riders, who had beaten Durham by just two points in last year's final.

The defeat was tough on Durham, who have now lost three WBBL finals, and especially Fong, who led the team superbly, and Macdonald, who got the team out of their usual slow start to a final with 14 points, including four threes, in two and a half minutes in the first quarter.

The likelihood is that the WBBL will now be halted, at least temporarily, in line with other sporting leagues, despite no British basketball players having tested positive for coronavirus so far.

Leicester Riders forward Sara Hinriksdottir told ����ý Sport:

"Durham came back - they made some shots today that we didn't expect them to make and they matched our runs with theirs.

"They always answered what we did. But we adjusted, got some transition points that we needed and that's how we want to play.

"We gave it all in - because this might be our last game of the season."

Durham Palatinates guard Nicolette Fong told ����ý Sport:

"Every time we've played Leicester, it's been a close game.

"The first one they won, the second one we won and unfortunately in the biggest one we lost. It was always going to be close.

"It's up to the WBBL [suspending the league] - we're the only teams playing right now, which is kind of outrageous.

"But it is what is - we'll see what happens next. Teams have already started to lose foreign players and at the end of the day it's their decision.

"We back them 100 per cent because health is more important than basketball."