After a somewhat disappointing run of games in the run up to the Xmas break, with narrow 5 point loses to both Solent and Plymouth, Tigers have returned to winning ways in their opening 2 games in January. The spate of early season injuries to key players was a real cause for concern in the early weeks of the season, with long term injuries affecting Laura Dyke, Abby Pow and Aimee Brook.
No sooner had players returned to the side when injuries struck again — a bad ankle injury placed Emily Farthing on the sideline for key games, and luckless Aimee Brook suffered a break to her ankle. Coach Steve Green, whilst having the opportunity to blood junior players with all-important court minutes, has had to constantly chop and change his squad to meet game commitments and this has not helped consistency of results on court.
In their first game of the New Year, Tigers entertained the high flying Cardiff Celts side at Wellsprings. The Celts are the current leaders of Division 2 and are beating all sides before them — perhaps not the ideal team to face after the Xmas break!
Cardiff got off to an excellent start, but Tigers matched them point for point with Hannah Watkins having a strong 1st quarter. Special attention was being given to ex-Tigers Academy player, Emma Gough, now playing for the Celts, who led all scorers in the early season encounter between the sides. Things were certainly not going to be easy for her this time round, particularly as she picked up early fouls. Simple turnovers by Tigers undermined their good start and enabled the Celts to tie the 1st quarter at 14 points apiece. Six valuable points from Abby Pow and a brace of three's from Jenny Ridgway allowed Tigers to put some daylight between themselves and the Celts with a 6 point lead. The introduction of Sadler by the Celts created an increased scoring threat against the Tigers, before late scores by Abby Pow and Nicola Hartston and valuable work by Hannah Maddocks and Petra Kostrejova enabled the Tigers to go into the break leading 28 – 25.
Celts came out after half-time firing on all cylinders and soon recovered the lead as Tigers failed to score at all in the 1st five minutes of the quarter. Strong D by the Celts restricted the looks at the basket, but fouls on Laura Dyke enabled Tigers to stay in touch as she nailed her free throws, whilst Ella Hewton and the retuning Aimee Brook added valuable baskets. Although, Celts took the quarter 17 – 10, they were also picking up fouls, as they ended the quarter up by 42 – 38.
Worse was to come for Tigers in the early exchanges of the last quarter as Celts stretched their lead to 9 points. Enter Emily Farthing, on her return from injury, making up for lost time as she turned the game on it's head! Tigers had been moving the ball well and Emily added the finishing touches as she and Laura Dyke amassed 15 points in the last quarter to take the game to overtime 56 points apiece.
Overtimes are always thrillers, but with the support of a large crowd awaiting the start of the Mens game, Emily wrestled the game away from the Celts with another 7 unanswered points to end a dream game for her and the Tigers women as they took the game 67 – 64.