St Hilda's pounces on depleted College

College centre Julia Law throws a pass during her side's loss to St Hilda's Senior A at the Edgar...
College centre Julia Law throws a pass during her side's loss to St Hilda's Senior A at the Edgar Centre on Saturday. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
In the only game of the day that had any bearing on the top four, St Hilda's Senior A upset a depleted Markham's College A.

The 60-44 win secured St Hilda's a spot in the top four for semifinals next week.

College had a good start, going out to a 7-2 lead before St Hilda's found their feet and got into the game.

After some stressed passes in the attacking end for St Hilda's, they settled into their rhythm and began reducing the deficit.

The College shooting end was missing their standard goal shooter, which pushed Kiana Pelasio back to shooter and brought Samantha Garrick into the goal attack role.

The unfamiliar combination in the College circle caused some issues in their attacking end, which gave St Hilda's the ability to really put pressure on.

They turned over several balls to bring themselves back to a respectable one-goal deficit at the quarter-time break, with College up 13-12.

The second quarter saw a change at goal shoot for St Hilda's, with Sofie Bain coming on for Elora Peters.

That proved a successful move, giving St Hilda's a height advantage in the shooting circle, which allowed for some nice feeding and rebounding.

Within the first five minutes of the quarter St Hildas took the lead, and they held it for the remainder of the game.

Both teams gained some good intercepts on defence, with Abby Johnston picking up a couple for College, while Annie Timu and Anna Young both picked up ball for St Hilda's.

With St Hilda's picking up more ball they went into the long break up 28-24.

The third quarter saw St Hilda's go out to a seven-goal lead halfway through the quarter, after a couple of crucial turnovers from Timu and some slick attack through the court.

College rolled out some wholesale changes with five-and-a-half minutes to play in the third quarter.

Four changes were made, shuffling Pelasio to goal attack, Garrick to goal shoot, Johnston to centre and Julia Law to wing defence to try to combat the roll of points that St Hilda's put on.

After a well-controlled intercept from wing attack Kendra Robinson, St Hilda's went into the final break with an eight-goal buffer at 44-36.

The final period of play saw the connection between Bain and Grace Southby grow, with some fantastic shooter-to-shooter ball.

Southby's shooting was outstanding all game, and she finished the match with 25 out of 28 attempts at 89%.

Annie Timu continued to pick up tips and rebounds, bringing the ball through court strongly to Robinson, who had great vision into the circle on her feeds.

That helped St Hilda's finish by extending its lead to 16.

In other games, Southern Magpies had a win over South Pacific Titans A 64-41 to take second position over them.

Physed Blue had a 46-42 victory over fellow club team Physed B to leapfrog it into sixth position, while Physed A had a big 84-27 win over club compatriots Physed C to keep itself top of the table.

Physed A take on St Hilda's Senior A in semifinal No1 next week, while semifinal two will be a rematch between Southern Magpies and South Pacific Titans A.

 - Bridget Thayer 

Add a Comment