Women’s Norwood Flames vs South Adelaide Panthers
The Norwood Flames (6-10) are looking to have a good end to the season with some wins in the last 2 rounds. They go up against the South Adelaide Panthers (11-5) who are fighting for postseason positioning. The well-rounded game from the Panthers will make for a tough matchup on both sides of the ball for Norwood.
Despite Norwood making the first shot of the game, South Adelaide came out of the gates firing, being aggressive on offence and finding open outside looks. The aggression from South Adelaide led to them drawing a lot of fouls and finishing a lot of and-1 plays. Unfortunately, the Panthers were able to create an early 10-point lead in the first 5 minutes of the game. The defensive intensity from the Flames stepped up in a big way, forcing South into tough possessions. Despite Norwood’s defence limiting South Adelaide’s scoring to just free throws, they weren’t able to convert on offence and the lead remained stagnant. The quarter came to a close, 26-16.
South Adelaide’s aggression didn’t falter to start the second. They continued to draw fouls, find open shooters or finish through contact to end their possessions in points. The Panthers’ unrelenting energy kept Norwood on the back foot, enabling them to extend their lead beyond 20 points. The women were trying their best to make a run but shots weren’t falling and the South Adelaide squad was rolling, continuing to put tons of pressure on the Flames. The half came to a close, 57-31.
Norwood came out shooting it well after the break, hitting two quick triples and going on an 8-2 run to start the half. The quick run didn’t unsettle the Panthers, who answered back an 8-0 run of their own. The Panthers’ offence was solid for most of the quarter but the Flames were able to slow them down considerably, forcing the Panthers to have a two-and-a-half-minute scoring drought. The Panthers finally broke this drought but were unable to score for the remainder of the quarter showing a massive positive sign for the Flames. The quarter closing, 74-46.
The Panthers weren’t going to give Norwood any breathing room in the final quarter. They kept their foot on the pedal, keeping up really tough defence whilst putting pressure on the rim on offence. The final quarter saw the Flames find some offensive rhythm but it wasn’t enough to catch back up, especially whilst stops weren’t able to be chained together. The final score of the game was 96-63.
