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Guernsey faced Guildford Heat at the Spectrum in their first National League Division 2 game in 6 weeks. The game was being played as a double header with the men’s side at the Guildford Spectrum, home to last year’s treble winning Guildford Heat who play in Britain’s top flight professional league the BBL.
Guernsey, in keeping with most of their National league games, started slowly and took a while to get off the mark. Guildford had no problems finding the hoop and quickly built a lead. Guernsey struggled to finish off patient offensive sets and were guilty of missing lay-ups in transition. Guildford struggled from the line in a game called tightly by the officials but still managed to hold a 22-14 lead at the end of the first. Into the second quarter and Guernsey began to make inroads into the lead, but again found themselves in foul trouble – Guildford’s ex England International Clare Laythem drawing most of the attention with her strong drives to the hoop. Guildford were again guilty of missing too many shots from the charity stripe and at half time the defecit was reduced to 5 (32-27).
After the break, Guernsey were much better. They started brightly to score the first 6 points of the half, and take a lead they would never relinquish. The offensive movement of Kerri Brown, Liz Kerr, Amy Wright and Emma Hicks was too much for the tiring Guildford team but some sloppy turnovers saw Guernsey unable to pull away. They did however retain their lead thanks to a buzzer beating three pointer from Hicks, 41-44 with just one quarter to play. Into the fourth and Guernsey again pushed the lead out with good shooting from Brown and Hicks. Jenny Rees was also involved on both ends as she put her body on the line to draw charged and grab vital rebounds. The lead slowly built and with just over a minute to go and Guernsey ahead by 8, it looked as if the game would fizzle out. Guildford, however, had other ideas as they pressured the Guernsey team into making turnovers which they duly converted into two three point makes cutting the lead to 2 with just 17 seconds remaining. Guernsey tried to wind time down but the Guildford pressure once again stole the ball only to have their lay-up attempt roll out of the rim and away to safety to give Guernsey a hard fought and deserved 2 point win. Kerr finished with 16, while Wright and Hicks added 10 each.
Pat Ogier – “ Im very happy with the win after such a long time without a game. Guildford are a good side, much better than their league position would suggest and they probably feel they deserved more from the game. We aim to use this win as a springboard now to give us momentum heading into next week’s game against Birmingham which we know will be a tough game, but one we know we can compete in. The squad really enjoyed playing in a venue like the Spectrum and the BBL game that followed was closely fought and a highly enjoyable contest , rounding off the weekend nicely.”
Squad – Emma Pattimore, Kerri Brown, Kat Daunt, Emma Hicks, Liz Kerr (Cap), Tracy Martel, Amy Wright, Jo Bellis, Nat Whitty, Katie Cochrane, Gemma Loveridge, Jenny Rees.