Women’s NBL1 2024 Game 2
Coming off a disappointing result in round 1 the Flames are looking to bounce back and get their first win of the season against this Centrals team who had a blowout 29 point win against the Mavericks in round 1. A tough game ahead for the flames against one of the elite offences early in the season.
First quarter started with a quick offensive attack from the Lions, starting the game with a 6-0 run, Centrals came out of the gates with energy attacking the rim and putting the Flames on their backfoot. Fortunately, Polly Turner was able to answer and spark the Flames offence scoring our first 5 points including a big 3-point shot. Once our offence was sparked we started dominating on that end bringing the game back to a one point game off of impressive play by Isabella Stratford who was all over our offence, scoring, playmaking and probing the Lions defence. Unfortunately, the Lions offence responded, going on another big run extending their lead to 9 before some back and forth ended the quarter 27-18.
From the start of the second quarter both teams were working well, firing from range and matching scores for the first few minutes of the period, Stratford and Turner were being aggressive looking to take the scoring load for the Flames. The aggression turned up by the Flames on the defensive end, forcing turnovers and creating opportunities for fastbreak points. This defensive jump stunted the Lions offence, having extended scoring droughts throughout the quarter as Norwood continued to pile on the points and claw themselves back into the game. The quarter ended with a buzzer beating layup from Eva Langton cutting the lead to 4 going into the half, 49-45.
Norwood’s defensive intensity kept going into the second half, Turner’s steal and fastbreak finish opened the quarter for the Flames. Using this momentum Norwood took the lead for the first time in the game with 6:50 to go in the third. The Lions were struggling to score, fighting for all of their looks and forcing bad shots, unfortunately the Flames momentum was broken as the Centrals forced a couple turnovers and got some easy looks regaining possession of the lead. From this point a lot of back and forth occurred, both teams playing stellar defence, forcing each other to take tough shots and force looks late into shot clocks, the game was close the whole way through the quarter each basket being answered and each stop being matched. The score going into the fourth sat at 67-66 Norwood trailing by just 1.
Unfortunately the fourth started with the Lions raining threes, opening the quarter with 3 quick 3’s. Norwood was only able to answer 1 thanks to a 3 by Eva Turner and then they could only find 2 point opportunities trying to match 3’s for 2’s the Flames went down 5 early. Intense defence was the order of the quarter, both teams struggling to find momentum on the offensive end. The exception for Norwood was Polly Turner who was able to find her looks and take high quality shots in the quarter, her efforts weren’t enough as the lead increased to 7 with 3 minutes to go. A massive run from the Flames brought the game back to 1 point before the Flames were forced to foul, unfortunate offensive possessions made the final score 89-83 the girls going down in round 2 after a great fight.
Article by Samuel Sterry
