The Royal Cougars have
moved to fourth on the Subway Cup ladder after defeating Woods Panthers 52-30
in a solid team performance on Saturday at Netball SA Stadium.
The win sees the
Cougars move to fourth spot on the ladder moving above both Woods and Spring
Gully Newton Jaguars as the race for the finals begins to heat up leading into
the final round of matches.
While both sides were
looking sharp early in the match, it was the Cougars who moved out to 3 goal
lead after good defence from GK Tamsin Petzer and GD Paris Vince. From there
the Cougars did not look back.
Through patience and
precise ball movement in attack, and good movement from GA Joanne Nixon, the
Cougars dominated most of the first quarter leading by 11 goals. But a strong
finish with 3 goals in a row from Woods cut the lead to 8 at quarter time.
The second quarter was
a much more even affair with Woods getting into the game and showing some of
their recent good form. They could not break the Cougars composed attack and
the lead remained at 8 goals midway through the quarter.
Although Woods
shooters Emma Thomas and Kim Walker had a much better quarter, the Cougars
still won it by 3 goals. The halftime lead was 11 goals to the Cougars, who did
not look like slowing down.
Quick transitional
play from the Cougars continued their momentum early in the third quarter as
they started to take control of the match. C Leigh Waddington was excellent
across the court and linked well with WD Ashton Hurn who was picking off bad
Woods passes.
Woods could just not
get anything to click during the match, scoring just 4 goals for most of the
quarter. Some late possession enabled 3 late goals but by this stage the
Cougars had moved out to a 16 goal lead at the final break.
Cougars’ shooters,
Jess Roberts and Joanne Nixon, making things difficult with a 100% third
quarter.
Woods started the
final quarter well scoring a couple of goals but the Cougars were on fire and
looking for a big win which they got by 22 goals. Waddington continued her
strong performance and this showed late in the quarter.
While chasing a loose
ball, Waddington and Woods GK Tara Gagliardi combined for a big collision that
saw the Cougars C crash to the floor. Waddington received an accidental knock
to the head as both players competed for the ball with intent.
Cougars coach Scott
Waddington said that the whole side contributed across the court and that the
structure was good.
“It was a good even
contribution, we thought that we did exactly what we wanted to do structurally
and defensively was very good.
“We’ve really focussed
this year on improvement, every game we want to improve a little bit more from
the game before.
“We get three rounds
this year it gives us three cracks at every side, we’re back to round 1 against
Contax, we’re hoping for a competitive effort with every team we come back to
face leading up to finals.”
Injured Woods player
Beth Shimmin said the match was tough to watch from the sideline and that the
side is still confident that they regain form leading up to the finals.
“It was really tough
to watch from the sidelines, I definitely wanted to be out there. Just when
it’s not going your way, I guess it’s not going your way.
“We’ve managed to get
the bye leading into final round, so we’ll definitely be working hard on a lot
of things.
“I’m pretty confident
coming into the last round that it will just fall into place.” Shimmin said.
In Friday night’s
games ETSA Contax easily defeated Stellar Homes Garville 66-31 and the Health
and Life Phoenix moved to third sport defeating Spring Gully Newton Jaguars
49-41, which moves the Jaguars to fifth spot on the ladder.
Quarter-by-quarter scores:
Q1:
Cougars 15 – 7
Panthers
Q2:
Cougars 29 – 18
Panthers
Q3:
Cougars 41 – 25
Panthers
Q4:
Cougars 52 – 30
Panthers
Match Shooting Statistics:
Cougars 52/60
86.67%
J. Roberts: 34/39 87.18%
J. Nixon: 14/17 82.35%
S. Carver: 4/4 100%
Panthers 30/46
65.22%
K. Walker: 13/16 81.25%
E. Thomas: 13/20 65%
K. Zanardo: 4/10 40%
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