Following on from their last second win the previous week, Taunton Tigers Women met their close rivals Plymouth Raiders once again in another hard-fought local derby at Wellsprings last weekend in the National Cup. The same 2 sides had met at the same stage of the competition last year, when Taunton shaded the result by 1 point, in fact in all league and cup games between the 2 teams, neither side had beaten the other by more than 3 points. Another extremely tight game was to be expected, with the prize for the winner an away trip against the foremost side in the UK, Rhondda Rebels.
New Tigers coach, Steve Green had some serious injury considerations to contend with prior to the game as the influential starting five trio, Laura Dyke, Aimee Brook and Jenny Ridgway were all unavailable and nursing injuries from the previous weekend's encounter. As often happens in such circumstances, others grasp the opportunities offered them to show their mettle, plus Tigers were able to blood another youngster from their basketball academy when Annie De Silva, joined her academy team-mates Ella Hewton anfd Frankie Fair on the Tigers Bench.
Tigers game plan is fairly straight-forward these days with a long bench, run the boards hard, take good options on offence and play strong defence. Once again Tigers got off to a quick start, moving the ball well and filling the lanes to split the Raiders depleted defence in a regular fashion. Without the dangerous Ruiz and Hillman, Raiders looked far from the side which had troubled the Tigers the week before. That said, baskets were traded equally throughout the 1st quarter as Tigers presented Raiders with a great deal of turn-over ball. Emily Farthing dominated the boards, particularly at the Offensive end, picking up 6 early points as Tigers took the quarter 16 – 14.
Coach Green rotated his bench throughout the 2nd quarter and got all the girls into the game by the half-time break. Although Plymouth reorganised in the second quarter, cutting down Tigers offensive options, their limited team rotation was beginning to hurt as first Ella Hewton and then Hannah Watkins and Petra Kostrejova made the most of their scoring opportunities to take Tigers into the break comfortably leading 36 – 29.
The 3rd quarter was largely a repeat of the previous quarter with Hannah Watkins now beginning to really dominate under the hoop and enabling guards Abby Pow, Frankie Fair, Nicky Hartston and Hannah Maddocks to all pick up valuable points and spread the shooting threats against a weary and increasingly dis-organised Plymouths defence as Tigers closed out the quarter leading 53 – 39.
The last quarter, with the score firmly favouring Tigers, was very much a formality. 2 long three pointers from Raider's young guard Roberts provided some respectability, however, Tigers were still moving the ball well under Mel Pattemore's probing passes, but were no longer finishing quite as strongly as earlier in the game. That said, the momentum remained firmly with the Tigers as they secured the game 64 – 49.
Tigers coach, Steve Green commented after the game,
“This was a great win for the girls and another excellent team effort. With so many injury concerns it was expected that we would have a really close game today — all the girls made the most of the opportunities presented to them and really stepped up their game, particularly Emily Farthing who was voted MVP for her excellent rebounding and all-round contribution. We will look forward to Rhondda in the next round and enjoy the experience.”