Tigers booked themselves a place in the 3rd round of National Shield with this revenge victory against local rivals Plymouth Marjon. Having suffered an agonising 2 point defeat against the same opponents a fortnight ago, in the National Cup, it was a motivated Tigers side that travelled to Plymouth for a re-match.
The first half was a low scoring affair. At the end of the first quarter the two sides were tied on just 12 points each and Tigers had succeeded with just 5 of their 18 shots. The second period continued in similar vein, but the home side had nudged ahead 29 – 25 going into the locker room.
The half-time talk obviously did the trick for the Tigers, as they came out and more than doubled their score in the 3rd period with a great team effort. Joe Saunders, Dan Howe, Mike Sebire, Kev Anderson and Joe Mills all contributed points, but it was captain Adam Rickwood who really led the way with 9 points in the quarter.
Taunton took a slender 49 – 51 lead into the final period, but saw it evaporate quickly as their shooting woes returned. While Tigers missed their first 4 shots of the quarter (all from outside the 3 point arc), Plymouth scored 9 unanswered points and went ahead by 7.
Tigers kept fighting, though, and slowly closed gap. With just 3:40 remaining in the game, Mills put them back into the lead (60 – 61) and they never looked back.
They closed the game out with 6 more points from Rickwood down the stretch. In the end this was a comfortable, well-deserved victory built on a superb defensive effort. In the final 5 minutes of the game Plymouth had been restricted to scoring just 3 points.
Tigers' reward is a home tie in the next round against Glamorgan Gladiators on November 14th.