NBL1 Round 4 vs Sturt Sabres
Women
The first quarter opened 4-0 in Norwood’s favor, they forced Sturt into a lot of deep shots which allowed Norwood to really control the pace of their offence. Unfortunately, shots weren’t dropping early, mostly due to Sturt’s impressive energy on defence, creating a lot of deflections and forcing turnovers. Sturt was not shying away from the 3-ball and the difference in offensive strategy was clear, Norwood was getting the ball inside using the size of Saunders and strength of Amanda Paschal, whilst Sturt attributed their offence to outside looks or transition scores. Despite this interesting offensive philosophy difference, both teams had very similar defensive styles, lots of ball pressure forcing turnovers off bad passes. This led to a scrappy start where both teams found themselves turning the ball over often. Norwood broke away towards the end of the quarter, going to a 1-2-2 trap which fueled their offence, the quarter ending, 17 – 23.
The defence continued to be a focal point of the game with both teams hounding each other, forcing outside looks and playing physical whenever the ball is brought inside. Sturt’s 3-ball started dropping and they closed the gap to 2-points. The Sabres cooled down offensively but Norwood was unable to extend their lead again mostly due to turnovers. Emily Saunders was dominant defensively, disrupting all of Sturt’s offence around the rim, her work on the defensive end was being rewarded with a lot of post touches offensively. Sturt’s only choice was to double Saunders in the post leading to opportunities for guards and wings to play against scrambling closeouts. These breakdown possessions led to the Sabres committing a lot of fouls, sending Norwood into the bonus with about 3-minutes to go in the quarter. These free-throws allowed Norwood to get rolling offensively, breaking into a double-digit lead quickly. Norwood kept the lead above 10, 27 – 37 at halftime.
Sturt opened the second half back to taking a ton of threes, taking 4 of their 5 shots from distance, hitting one of them. Sophie Kerridge was able to answer but the Norwood offence was stagnant to start the quarter. Sturt was able to start converting on their triples, extending the Norwood defence and forcing coach Will Smith to call a timeout as the game became a 2-point contest. Nothing was dropping for Norwood in this quarter from inside or outside, on-top of the poor offensive quarter, Norwood was giving up a lot of o-boards and Sturt was able to capitalise on Norwood’s lapse. Norwood changed their defence and went back into a 1-2-2 trap to try and disrupt the Sturt offence, this worked, slowing the Sabres down and forcing them into halfcourt execution. Unfortunately, despite Norwood being back to getting stops they were unable to generate open looks and had a lot of turnovers in the quarter, leading to Sturt eventually taking the lead off a triple. Norwood was able to take the lead back to end the quarter with Caitlin Shillabeer hitting a tough layup off a sweet dime from Amanda Paschal, 49 – 50.
The Sabres quickly took the lead back, starting the fourth with a 4-point run. Amanda Paschal was aggressive with the ball, getting to the line and ensuring that her Flames kept the scoreboard moving. Sturt was trying to keep the lead, playing passively and trying to find shooters without paint touches, this gave Norwood an opportunity to be the aggressors and set the pace for the last quarter. Norwood did this, playing a physical brand of basketball and forcing the ball inside. Emily Saunders and Amanda Paschal were able to get themselves to the line or convert around the rim consistently. This prowess brought Norwood back into the lead with just over half the quarter remaining. Norwood stayed in their trap and continued to get deflections; however, the Sabres were able to keep hitting 3’s enough to keep themselves in the game. The lead hovered at 3-points for the last few possessions of the game, an empty trip from the free-throw line and a couple turnovers keeping Sturt in the game. Sturt hit a couple clutch free-throws to make it a 1-point game with 12 seconds left, then forcing a 5-second violation on the inbound. The Sabres executed well out of the timeout and gave themselves a 1-point lead off a big reverse layup. Norwood took their own timeout with 8.2 left on the clock, a deflection from Sturt sent the ball tumbling out of bounds setting Norwood up for a baseline inbound. Off the inbound the Flames got it to Saunders inside who hit a tough shot in the paint to put Norwood up by 1. Out of timeouts and with only 2 seconds remaining, Sturt couldn’t respond, Norwood winning, 71 – 72.
