Taunton Tigers Women entertained high flying unbeaten league leaders UWIC at Wellsprings, for their first game of the New Year. UWIC have reigned supreme at the head of Division 2 from the first game this season, beating all before them by comfortable margins and have high expectations of featuring well in Division 1, assuming they achieve their expected promotion at the end of the season. The Coach for UWIC is Damien Jennings, who was educated at St Augustine's and Richard Huish, and was a part of the Tiger's set-up until moving to Cardiff to live. Taunton Tigers Women, in this formative year, back in the top flight are still in the learning phase, and what better way to test their progress than a game against one of the premier sides in British Women's Basketball.
Coach John Abbot's pre-game talk emphasised the need for game concentration and the introduction of a new half court defence to counter the UWIC scoring threats. He also encouraged his players to run the board's hard, take the game to their more experienced opponents, and make the best of the opportunities that came their way.
Tigers didn't quite get off to the start they had hoped for, but were able to trade early baskets with UWIC. Early, costly turnovers by Tigers did, however, start to mount up and a judicious time out by Coach Abbott was required to re-focus the players. Tigers bench rotation served to stem the UWIC scoring tide, but couldn't arrest it as UWIC took the quarter with a comfortable 13 point lead of 20 – 7. The quarter break allowed for an improved game plan by the Tigers, who were beginning to realise that they could compete on even terms in many facets of play. Tigers were now playing with more control and, although not quite matching the scoring threat of their opponents, were making more of a game in this quarter — losing the quarter 13 – 19, and the half 20 – 39.
A 19 point deficit at the half offered only a slim opportunity for a full recovery, however it was apparent to the watching crowd that, with self belief, Tigers could compete well with the best that UWIC could offer. As in the first half, lapses of concentration cost Tigers dear in the early exchanges, and allowed UWIC to stretch their lead, before Tigers started to break the UWIC press with increasing frequency and allowed a late flurry of scoring of their own, but leaving UWIC leading 63 – 32 at the end of the 3rd quarter. With only pride to play for, Tigers continued to press UWIC at every opportunity and showed what might have been, as they matched the league leaders point for point before the game ended with a convincing win for UWIC 79 – 43.
After the game, UWIC's coach Damien Jennings, was full of compliments for the Taunton side,
“I was unaware that the Tigers Women's basketball programme had progressed so far, and that there were so many capable and competitive players in the town. Things have certainly come a long way in a short space of time! We regard ourselves as being in the top 6 clubs in British basketball and today, you were able to break our press with ease, move the ball well, and run lay ups — not many teams compete so well against us — well done!”
Whilst the overall result was much as could be expected from the Tigers perspective, Coach John Abbott stressed that his side will take many positives from the match,
“These remain early days for many of our players at National League level and they will assimilate the lessons of this game as part of their learning and development process. Today we played the best side in the division and matched them in large areas of the game. We were punished harshly for our errors. We will learn from this and move forward. The target for our squad this season remains consolidation at National League level, anything better will be a bonus.”
The Tigers Womens next league game is a local derby next Saturday against Plymouth Racers. Tip-off for the game at Wellsprings is 4:15pm (immediately prior to Tigers Mens game against Kent Crusaders).