The Women’s 1st Basketball team got their season off to a winning start as they beat Coventry 55-34 in the Munrow Sports Centre yesterday evening.
The first goal of the quarter was scored by one of Birmingham’s newest recruits, fresher C. Gold. She seems to be an excellent addition to the team and it will be exciting to follow her progress throughout the season. Birmingham player F. Muller also made a couple of great baskets securing an early lead for Birmingham of 3-15 by the end of the first quarter.
From the general state of play it’s clear that the Birmingham team have been training hard over the summer and had the majority of possession in the first quarter leading to more accurate shooting and therefore baskets. Coventry seemed to be lagging behind a bit, a thought clearly shared by their coach who was getting very vocal towards the end of the quarter.
However this tactic seemed to work as Coventry really pulled up their game in the second quarter and managed to score 5 consecutive baskets, which really reduced the point gap. Despite this Birmingham fresher F. Muller was having none of it and quickly worked to counteract Coventry’s attack. A solid effort from the fresher and arguably the most valuable player of the game. The first three pointer of the game was scored by Birmingham’s F. Solkhom bringing the score at the end of the quarter to 20-31 to Birmingham.
The third quarter saw a bit of a power shift, at one point Coventry brought the point gap down to six, however Birmingham worked tirelessly to bring this up to 12 by the end of the quarter. Here Birmingham’s training and fitness regime was clearly paying off as Coventry were starting to lag and definitely started to look tired.
Nevertheless their enthusiastic coach was more than happy to give them some vocal support from the side line and was very eager to try specific plays. The score at the end of the third quarter stood at 42-30 to Birmingham.
The fourth quarter saw the second three pointer of the game scored by Birmingham. An excellent basket was scored by R. Mackenzie, which unfortunately let to an injury and her early retirement from the game. We hope she’s back for next week! It has to be noted that the last quarter got quite scrappy from both sides, this was a bit of a shame, as Birmingham were quite comfortable in their point gap and so didn’t need to panic. Plenty of fouls kept the umpires busy this quarter! However the Birmingham team’s early lead led them to a well-deserved victory of 55-34.
