Wildcats Can’t Put Away the Flyers

5 April 2013, Rotorua Energy Events Centre

The Canterbury Wildcats had the Flyers on the ropes, up 53-49 with 6 minutes to go, before going ice cold and being outscored by 15-3 over the balance of the game. For the Flyers, Junior Tall fern, Stella Beck finally found her groove, hitting her final three shot attempts during this portion of the game (after starting out 3/16).

The four point margin may not have seemed like much, but the Wildcats were able to hold the Flyers to 27% shooting for the game. The Flyers were relentless on the boards, regaining possession on their own missed shots 27 times (55%) helping them overcome the Wildcats defence. Standout performers for the Wildcats were guard Hayley Gray who had 17 Points; Tessa Boagni with 14 Points, 6 Rebounds and 4 Assists; Cecelia Zambrini with 11 Points, 5 Rebounds and 4 Steals; and Pip Connell pulled down 12 Rebounds while dishing out 5 Assists.

The Wildcats were forced to play nearly the whole game without their starting point guard and captain, when Shea Crotty badly injured her ankle less than three minutes into the game, resulting in them turning the ball over an uncharacteristically high amount (22). Assistant Coach Pina Lissaman remarked “Shea’s injury added unwarranted pressure to the other guards on the team. Despite this, we still gave ourselves a good chance to win, but Porirua was outstanding on the boards, fighting for every loose ball, and then giving themselves extra opportunities to score.”

Head Coach Phil Burns added “we were really stretched when Shea left the game, having to modify the roles of our guard line-up to deal with her loss. We’ve since found out she has no bone damage, but she won’t be available for the remainder of this tournament. We did manage to get a whole lot of easy, 2 foot, shots at the basket, but failed to convert on nearly enough of these opportunities. Our opponent tomorrow morning, Harbour, have just lost a close game to Otago, so they’ll be out for another win tomorrow – exactly the same as us.”

For the Flyers Stella Beck finished with a stat-line of 19 Points, 13 Rebounds and 5 Steals; and fellow guard Margaret Scott had 12 Points and 4 Assists. The full box score and play by play can be found here

The Wildcats must quickly regroup and face the Jody Cameron coached North Harbour Breeze at 11:00am Saturday 6 April 2013. Live Statistics for this matchup can be found by clicking here