Saturday 25th March 2023
It was an early start on Friday 24th March with players catching flights from Tauranga and Hamilton with a stopover in Christchurch. The team all met in Christchurch and departed together to Invercargill. It was awesome being at the bottom of the South Island and for many in the team this was their first time in that part of the country. The team were able to have a little look around the place and opted for a pool session on the Friday night to recover from their lengthy flights. After a great Captains Run on Saturday morning the team were feeling well prepared going into the match.
It was quite a slow start for WBOP, allowing the Southern Blast to shoot out to a 4-1 lead. With WBOP beginning to settle they began to close the gap and continued the quarter pretty much goal for goal. With a few defensive rebounds from both Monica Faumui and Liza Ball, WBOP closed the gap. Kate Taylor shot 10/10 for the quarter and both teams went into the first break with a draw.
Quarter score: 12 – 12 to Draw
The coaches continued with the same line-up going into the second quarter. We saw more errors creeping in and a few missed goals, but defensively WBOP were able to gain some rebounds and intercepts allowing the team to continue going goal for goal. Both teams were grinding hard but neither team were able to gain any momentum to pull away with a lead.
Half time score: 22 – 22 to Draw
The third quarter saw the injection of Ashley Maylor to GA and Kaiya Kepa to WD, along with Reeghan de Bono shifting into GD and Georgia Bodle moving from WD to C. With both shooters maintaining a 100% shooting record for the quarter WBOP ended the quarter with a 1 goal lead.
Three quarter score: 35 – 34 to WBOP
In the final quarter Georgia came on at WA, with Kaiya moving to C and Liza coming into WD. WBOP fought very hard and began to release the ball a lot quicker. The defensive pressure from all 7 on-court was outstanding forcing the Southern Blast to make multiple errors. The fitness of the WBOP team was evident in the last quarter with the team scoring 9 of the last 10 goals winning the quarter 17 – 6.
Final score: 52 – 40 to WBOP
NNL pool session
