U14 Girls get off to Winning Start     

U14 Regional Development League           

October 20th, 2015   

 

The Colliers U14 girls started their campaign with an impressive undefeated pre-season record of 14-0 and had made good progress with their national league outings. The visiting team from Cumbernauld (Gladiator Rocks) started out the stronger of the two teams with their aggressive defence and up tempo offence.

 

Coach Hutton called a quick time out to re-group and help the girls relax before getting back on the court. This seemed to work and the game was back to being evenly contested. Closing in on the end of the quarter it was the Rocks who managed to get ahead through a long range three pointer. With only Katie Burn and Tina Palli scoring, the Colliers needed more firepower on offence from the rest of the team.

 

Re-energised and ready to go, the girls took to the floor and quickly dominated the Rocks at both ends of the floor. With Katie Burn doing a great job defensively and Tina Palli finding her rhythm on offence, the Colliers opened up a 10-point lead.

 

The inclusion of Scotland centre Laura Thomson was a big boost as she rebounded the ball well and caused lots of problems for the Rocks offence.

 

The Colliers led by 9 going into the 3rd quarter and the girls kept the same intensity going but to expect the Rocks to come back at them with intensity. For the first part of the quarter the girls remained in control and played some really nice basketball through Abigail Paterson and Carla Crowther, however the strong Rocks team dug deep to claw back the score line to just 3 points at the end of the 3rd.

 

As the fourth quarter started the Colliers regained momentum through stifling defence and great team play on offence. Katie McGee, Abigali Paterson, Katie Burn, Laura Thomson and Carla Crowther were relentless on defence as they forced the Rocks into turnover after turnover which they converted into easy lay ups at the other end. Soon the lead was out to 15 points and the Colliers were firmly in control.

 

Top Scorers: Tina Palli 18 points, Carla Crowther 15 points & Katie Burn 12 points.

 

FINAL SCORE:   SL Colliers 61 Gladiator Rocks 51

 

Coach Ross Hutton commented: “this was a great test for our U14 girls and a game they really needed to play.”

“We have had it easy so far with U14 games and I am glad the girls got a chance to play this strong and very physical Rocks team.

 

“I thought we could have played a lot better but we still managed to get the win.”