Women’s Norwood Flames vs Southern Tigers
Round 8 for the Women’s Norwood team sees a matchup between the Flames (3-5) and the Southern Tigers (3-4). The Tigers are coming off 2 straight losses against the second-standing North Adelaide Rockets and the third-seeded Sturt Sabres. The Southern Tigers are an outstanding defensive squad, being the team with the least points against so far this season, this means that the Norwood women are going to have a rough offensive game and will need to win the defensive battle in what is going to be a physical, grit-and-grind style basketball game.
The game opened with a surprising amount of scoring, especially coming from the Southern Tigers, starting on an 8-2 run. Isabella Stratford was the only Norwood player able to find the bottom of the basket for the majority of the quarter, she was unable to answer the starting offensive power of the Tigers. The tight-nosed defence was on full display for the first quarter, holding the Norwood Flames to only 9 points whilst their ability to turn their stops into scores allowed them to put up 17, creating an 8-point margin by the end of the first, 17-9.
4 quick triples started the second quarter with an array of 3-point scoring, both teams hitting their first two shots. This offensive display was snuffed out by the stifling defence played on both sides. Eventually, Polly Turner and Emily Winter combined to break open the Tigers’ defence, both getting to the charity stripe and draining tough jump shots to bring the Flames back within 3 points. Another volley of 3-point shooting, both teams going back and forth hitting tough threes on every possession ended the quarter, the Tigers ending the barrage of 3’s still ahead, 35-29.
The 3-point shooting looked like it was going to carry over into the third with a quick three for the Tigers opening the quarter. Emily Winter answered with a 3-point play the old-fashioned way and Isabella Stratford chipped in to bring the game back to 4. The Tigers answered, being able to extend their lead before Polly Turner and Isabella Stratford were able to bring the Flames back into the contest, trimming the Southern lead back to 4. The Tigers tried to regain control but the Flames’ offence had found their footing and was able to make it a 1-point game, the Tigers were yet again able to break it back out to 4 before the end of the quarter, 52-48.
The final quarter displayed the true grit-and-grind nature of the game. Neither team was able to find any easy buckets over the entire period, both enduring battles on both ends. Having to fight for any breathing room with the basketball. It was a quarter full of effort and tenacious defence. The Tigers have been playing this style of basketball all season and have become accustomed to playing games under this pressure and with this lack of offensive momentum driving their team forward, this allowed them to hold onto their lead, not panicking when the Flames were able to score, holding their ground and coming away with the win. This means, of course, the Flames fell, 58-54.
