Issue 155

Basketball feel blue after heavy defeat

08th May 2007

Cardiff 105 - Swansea 22

Swansea fell to a heavy defeat at Varsity as Cardiff proved too strong for them from the start.

A combination of international quality players and plenty of training allowed Cardiff to pull out an early lead over Swansea, who struggled to match Cardiff's pace and finishing.

The result was Cardiff leading 25-4 at the end of the first quarter and things looking ominously bleak for Swansea. The lack of a coach did not help their cause as they attempted to create some kind of cohesion, but without any direction to the set plays it was too much for the team on the day.

The second quarter was much the same as Swansea attempted to stem the tide in vain. A strong effort from all the players, notably Liz MacCormack who went on to be Swansea's best player in the game, was not enough to halt Cardiff.

Their two French internationals in particular were playing havoc with Swansea's all round play. The result going into the break saw Swansea 51-10 down, this in spite of the clever use of a time out to steal some points back for Swansea to close the gap.

Despite this Swansea displayed admirable character and continued to fight on and could have scored more, but a succession of missed free throws did no favours. This, combined with the fatigue that began to set in deep into the third quarter started to show as more mistakes crept into the Swansea game such as some basic interceptions that led to easy points for Cardiff to leave the score at 78-16 at the end of the third.

This was much the same as what had gone before with Cardiff just sliding past the ton on their way to 105 to Swansea's valiant 22.

Swansea captain Hannah Green said afterwards that she was "pretty gutted" as she dejectedly walked off but she added "It's been a tough season and we have done well considering we have had four weeks off".

Not the greatest end of the season, but Swansea fought against the odds and they can be immeasurably proud despite the result.

Stuart Phillips