NBL1 Women Round 1 vs Woodville Warriors
Round 1 of the NBL1 Central season is here as the home Paradise Hotel Norwood Flames Women (0 – 0) take on the visiting Woodville Warriors (0 – 0). The Flames are ready for a competitive season ahead, with a mostly returning squad but with some new faces including, Dara Mabrey, Amy Cotton and Cali Clark as well as Head Coach Matt Hunt, who are looking to impress in their NBL1 debut games.
Norwood opened the season with a bang, Caitlin Shillabeer scoring the opening goal on the first possession through a beautiful back-cut. Woodville answered with 7 quick points coming off the back of their impressive defence. The Warriors were pressuring up the court in a 2-2-1 trap, leading to a lot of deflections; disrupting the Flames offence early. After fighting their way through the press, the Flames were able to use their size, especially that of import Cali Clark, to impose their will inside. The Warriors collapsed on post touches, allowing for kick-out 3’s to get the Norwood shooters hot. The Flames offence started to really roll, scoring inside and out until the game was tied 14-14 halfway through the quarter. The pressure of the Warriors was unrelenting as they broke out to a 5-point lead. A 3 from Amy Cotton stopped the run but the Flames couldn’t regain the momentum, the quarter came to a close 21 – 23.
The Woodville defence continued to cause issues for the Flames, keeping them out of their sets and forcing Norwood into 1 on 1 offence. The defensive intensity of the Flames was keeping them afloat early in the quarter as they kept within striking distance of Woodville. The offensive talent eventually pulled through and a big triple from Annie Elliott tied the game once more 32-32 forcing Woodville to call a timeout. Both teams continued their stellar defence, a few good sets on both sides created the occasional easy opportunity but it was mostly a defensive duel for the majority of the quarter. A couple big triples from Maddy Hinton and Caitlin Shillabeer in combination with great defensive possessions gave Norwood a 2-point advantage with 2 minutes remaining in the half. The Flames were unable to hold their lead as halftime arrived with the game even at 44 – 44.
Maddy Hinton opened the scoring for the second half with a nice floater in the middle of the lane. The Norwood offence was flowing much better to start the third, with the ball moving more fluidly getting much higher quality shots to start the period, obtaining a 5-point lead after a fade-away from Amy Cotton. Despite the improved offence Woodville’s defence was still elite, not allowing the Flames to break the game open. Whilst the Flames were getting hotter the Woodville offence started to struggle, the pressure of the Flames increased with their energy and some great defence inside kept the Warriors away from the rim. Eventually, the momentum wore off and Woodville responded, their defence creating clean semi-transition opportunities for them attack Norwood’s unset defence, bringing the game back to 4 before a timeout. Woodville maintained their momentum through the break tying the game up with a minute remaining in the quarter. Some quick baskets quickly flipped the feel of the game and Norwood ended the period up 63 – 58.
The final quarter opened and Woodville were ready for it, scoring 6 quick points and taking back the lead. The Warriors gameplan was back to what they set in the first quarter, forcing turnovers or extremely difficult possessions from the Flames and then capitalising on these errors on the other end forcing an early timeout from Matt Hunt. The Warriors weren’t phased from the break and continued their intensity, breaking out into an 8-point lead with 5 minutes to go. The momentum of the Warriors was high as they extended their lead to 14 before another timeout form the Flames. After the timeout they came out with renewed energy, breaking the Warriors trap and bringing the game back within single digits, a massive pull-up triple by Maddy Hinton brought the game back to just 3 with 90 seconds remaining. A big stop on the other end gave the Flames a chance to tie with a Technical Foul on Woodville making it just a 2-point game. The Flames got a good look but missed it, and a breakaway layup from Woodville extended their lead to 4. A pair of high leverage turnovers sealed the Flames fate, falling by 5 in the season opener. 81 – 86.
