GUERNSEY’S women basketballers started the defence of their Island Games with a six-point victory over Cayman Islands yesterday. At one point at the Ialyssos Indoor Hall, the Sarnians were out of sight with a 20-point lead, but their opponents fought back in the second half to cut the advantage to just four. After a tense final quarter, the Pat Ogier coached side held out for the win.
‘At half-time we always expected them to come out and give it a go. They had to,’ said Ogier.
‘Maybe we went a bit back on our heels, especially in the third quarter, but we did well at the end - boxing out, rebounding and making sure we kept possession. I was so pleased with the defensive effort in the first half.
‘We forced them to shoot some bad shots. The first 20 minutes secured the game for us.’
The star of the show was captain Liz Kerr who finished with 16 and 18 rebounds to her name. The Australian was on court for practically the whole match.
‘It’s hot in there,’ said a shattered Kerr.
‘We really put it to them in the first half. We stuck to our game. The difference was that in the first half we played tough defence and forced them to take shots that they didn’t want to take.
‘Second half they really took it to us and we slightly went away from our game. We started missing shots and nerves got to us.
‘But it was good that we did not let them catch up with us.’
It was nip and tuck for the opening couple of minutes as Guernsey grabbed the lead and then Cayman Islands took over. But when the greens got into stride with their trademark fast breaks with Kerr or Kerri Brown usually on the end of them for the score, they were up 16-11 going into the second quarter.
It was during this passage that they really stamped their authority on the match as they hit 14 points and Cayman could get only five as the greens put up a wall of defence. But, as is so often the case in sport, the second half brought a different story.
Cayman, led by Bobeth O’Garro and Scimore Campbell, gradually dragged themselves back into contention to make the score 51-47 in the dying minutes.
However, Guernsey rode out these tense moments when Brown converted another fast break with a lay-up and the final buzzer echoed out around the arena shortly afterwards.
Despite the victory, Kerr refused to say whether she felt her side could repeat their gold medal of Guernsey 2003, when basketball was last in the Games.
‘It’s too early to say,’ she said. I think we’ve got quite a lot of opposition in our pool. Rhodes are going to be tough, we know Gibraltar are going to be tough and I think Menorca will be the surprise package. It could be anyone.’
Guernsey: Pattimore, K. Brown,V. Loveridge, Hicks, Kerr, Martel, Wright, Bellis, L. Brown, Hartwich, G. Loveridge, Masherucci.
Article posted on 2nd July, 2007 - 12.00am
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