PREMIER LEAGUE WOMENS GAME ROCKETS VS SABRES AT PASADENA SATURDAY JULY 23
It was freezing in the Pasadena Stadium as the Rockets prepared to take on Sturt, to cement our place as second. We soon warmed up cheering the starting five of Jo Hill, Opal Mader, Kirsty Williams, Shannon McKay and Sarah Elsworthy. Lauren Thornett was resting a sore ankle. Sarah opened our scoring and also made a bonus. Opal soon drew a foul and shot 2. The fouls were called regularly through the game and soon Kirsty had 2 fouls but scored quickly. Courtney Hansen and Shannon Tarran left the bench and play was certainly hotting up. Shannon McKay made a nice intercept but Sturt were playing good man to man and it was score for score. Taylor Goggins and Sophie Byrne joined the team and as Jo returned to the court, we were up by 2. A nice block by Shannon Tarran, backed up by strong defence from Courtney, along with 2 foul shots from Jo, then two from Courtney, meant at quarter time the Rockets were up 20 to 24.
The starting five started and with their solid man defence, caused a shot clock violation to Sturt. Georgia Green stepped onto the court and play was fast. Good teamwork ensued and a nice steal by Courtney followed by a foul shot and great second effort from Opal, kept us in touch. Sophie shot a stunning three and the very physical play meant lots more fouls. At half time the score was Sturt’s way 47 to 45.
Sturt started the third quarter with a scoring blitz, but the Rockets kept at it with strong defence, accurate foul shots and grabbing rebounds. They kept Sturt to the same margin of only 3, 65 to 62.
It was the Rockets turn to open the quarter with quick scoring; Shannon and Jo shot well and then Courtney made a sneaky steal. Taylor shot one out of two foul shots and then Shannon made a 3. We were just ahead by 1 with a few minutes to go. An exciting last few minutes saw several steals and threes to finish the game with a resounding win of 80 to 86.
The top rebounders were Shannon 8 and Opal with 7 rebounds
The top scorers were Jo 18 pts, Shannon 17 pts and Sarah 12 pts.
See you next week at Hillcrest when we take on West Adelaide, 6.30pm.
April Johnston
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