Both teams struggled to find any attacking fluency in this tough, physical encounter at Wellsprings LC last weekend.
It took Taunton nearly 7 minutes to score their first points, but they were still very much in the match at the end of the first quarter, as their intense defensive effort kept the score down to 8 – 11. Hannah Byrne was leading the way with some great hustle putting pressure on the opponents' possession.
Early in the second quarter an Emily Farthing lay-up tied the scores at 13 – 13 and the game remained close throughout the rest of the half. Going into the break, Tigers were just 4 points behind at 19 – 23.
UWIC looked set to pull away several times in the third quarter, but the Tigers kept coming back at them and were still just 5 points down, 29 – 34 as the final period started. In the last few minutes the match became a bit of a free-throw contest and with slightly better shooting Taunton might have come out on top. In the end though, they paid the penalty for missing 23 shots from the line.
Team manager, Jim Hartston, reflected after the game,
“That was a really competitive game, but they just seemed to want it a bit more than us. I was pleased with the effort we put in but we turned the ball over 63 times, so we'll be looking for a bit more composure next week.”