Taunton Tigers Women completed a fantastic weekend of basketball for the Tigers club when they welcomed South Birmingham Bears, co-leaders of Division 2, to their Wellsprings lair for the first time this season. Tigers had never previously experienced any success against the experienced Birmingham outfit, who are also the reigning league champions and were last season's play-off runners up, so a very tough, uncompromising contest was expected.
Ex-Tigers player, Becky Brindley, turned out as point guard for the Blazers, presenting the unusual spectacle of no less than 11 Taunton Basketball Academy players taking the court at National League level — a great testimony to the coaching skills available through the Tiger's set-up. Taunton welcomed crowd favourite, Jo Woods, as team coach for the day, and also presented Ellie Leader an invaluable opportunity to get National League experience as a late replacement for Aimee Brook, absent with flu.
The Tigers made a cracking start and opened a 5 point lead, but were brought down to earth with a bump as 14 unanswered points hit the basket from Blazers, including 2 massive three pointers from the ever dangerous, Helen Winter, and 4 baskets from league top scorer Gemma Salmon. A welcome time-out from Coach Woods, re-focussed Tigers, and sorted out the defensive responsibilities, enabling the girls to claw their way back into contention trailing 17 – 14 at the quarter.
A brace of long range 3 point baskets from Jenny Ridgway, and another from Hanna Byrne, turned the tide as Tigers went on a scoring feast from inside and outside the arc, with their inside players Hannah Watkins, Laura Dyke, Milly Watkins, and Emily Farthing dominating the boards at both ends of the court, and keeping the Blazers inside players quiet.
A 31 – 26 half-time lead was quickly extended to a 17 point lead as intense pressure defence by Taunton increased the Blazers turn-overs. Guards Abby Pow, Nicky Hartston, Elly Leader, and Hannah Maddocks were doing a great job in denying Winter and Becky Brindley, to the extent that Blazers had to wait until the 7th minute of the quarter before registering any kind of score, allowing Tigers to finish the quarter leading 46 – 30.
A most unfortunate injury to Tigers key defender Hannah Watkins (later diagnosed as broken arm) right at the end of the quarter proved unsettling to the girls, and this opened the door to a Blazer's revival. Strong drives to the basket put Tigers in serious foul trouble and, with 5 minutes left, their seemingly unassailable 16 point lead had been whittled down to only 5 points. Roared on, and encouraged by the Tiger's home crowd, the girls dug deep to finish the match with a flourish at 59 – 49.
Team manager, Jim Hartston, was thrilled with the result,
“What a great weekend for Taunton Women's basketball. The girls should be really proud of themselves for a particularly good result against a vastly experienced and successful Birmingham team. Tigers appear to be the team to beat at the moment, and their position in top spot of the league is a just reward for their superb efforts, both on the court and in the training arena. We know other teams will be out to knock us off the perch, and we will need to be prepared and up for the challenges ahead.”