After securing their runners-up medals in the South-west/Midlands conference, Taunton's Women ended their winning streak with a heavy defeat away in the quarter finals of the National Play-offs.
After Manchester had jumped out to a 15 – 3 early start, the Tigers regained their composure but not their confidence as the game steadily ran away from them. Heath predicted that Taunton would have to keep turnovers below 20 to be competitive and in the end Tigers 39 errors were never going to get the job done.
After struggling badly against the full court pressure of the quicker northern outfit early on, they soon settled and a combination of press-break and patient half-court offence allowed them to create good opportunities, but with individual confidence suffering they regularly failed to execute and coupled with scoring 11 from 33 free throws, they just couldn't get a foothold in the game. Emma Gough was the shining light offensively but she couldn't find team-mates to mirror her positive approach.
At the other end the Tigers typically worked incredibly hard never giving up easy shots. Heath continued to rotate his bench to maintain intensity but Taunton never really managed to contain the quick guards of Manchester who consistently caused problems with their penetration.
“We haven't had long enough together to have a plan B or C and that showed today against better opposition, but I can't fault the attitude of the players for a single second over the last 2 months. Their incredible thirst and capacity to learn has made them a real pleasure to work with. Jim Hartston (Team Manager) has done an amazing job keeping them committed and together as a unit for so long and I hope they can go on from here and challenge for bigger honours.”