The Flames had a tough match against the Cougars back in October so were keen to put the record straight and get their revenge. Some re-scheduling enabled us to fit in one more match before the end of the year, presenting another full-team bench and enjoying more enthusiastic support from club members and friends on home turf. We did not disappoint anyone and posted our highest team score of the season to win by 27 points, with a final score of 65 - 38. With 8 players contributing to the scoreboard, including our newest member Patrizia scoring 4 in her first game, it really was a fantastic team effort. Katie top scored with 25 points whilst Liz and Rachida played a very valuable attacking game with 12 and 10 points respectively. We were 10 points up at half time but there was a long way to go against a fast side putting pressure on all the way. We stumbled in an even third quarter then regained our composure and stormed away in style thanks to solid teamwork including good passing and tough defence. A well-earned post-game/pre-Christmas drink was enjoyed by all where we thanked our scorers and coach Anne for their great efforts this season so far. Bring on 2013!

The Flames lost their game last night against the University of Brighton at Eastbourne. As the final score for each quarter indicates (1st: 16 - 12 / 2nd: 10 - 12 / 3rd: 29 - 7 / 4th: 13 - 12) our opponent beat us again due to poor performance on one quarter alone. If last game it was the first quarter, last night’s game it was the third quarter we paid for in the end. Whilst we managed to correct the first quarter nervous errors of the game against the University of Chichester, these same errors crippled us and our performance was pretty poor after half-time.

We started the game with a cool head in attack and a solid and determined defence and managed to make it to half-time losing by only two points, with the score being 26 - 24. After half-time however, the University of Brighton intensified their defence, applying full-court pressure, which completely took us by surprise by increasing the physicality of the game. A very clever move on their part as they could see by our almost empty bench we did not have many subs. They basically tired us out. Our 8 players to their 12 could not quite compete in such an intense environment. And we panicked, ending the third quarter trailing behind by 22 points! Still, we managed to somehow settle into the rhythm of the game and performed relatively well in the last quarter, which we lost by one point only. Could we have maintained the 1 or 2 bucket differential in the third quarter had we had more players sitting on the bench and therefore had a shot at winning this game? We’ll never know. But, judging by the team’s efforts and our getting back into the game after the hard blow of the third quarter, one cannot help but think we could have perhaps won had we had our usual 12.

Monday, December 17, 2012 we are facing the Cougars at home. Will the second or fourth quarter get in the way now or will we manage to keep our heads in the whole game? Stay tuned!