March 27, 2019, by llyad10

BUCS Big Wednesday: Women’s Basketball leave with a silver medal in the BUCS Trophy

In one of the first matches of the day at the David Ross Sports Village, UoN Women’s Basketball faced up in the early morning fixture against Bournemouth University in the Women’s Trophy.

University of Nottingham Sport Women’s Basketball Lineup

Bournemouth got off to a great start and  took the first points of the game before Danielle Schafer brought the game level for UoN. Fancis Musson got things going with a great three point effort from distance and helped set the tone for the rest of the first quarter.

It was confident start from UoN in the first quarter with a clear intensity to the play and high quality of passing, especially from Tomlinson and Schafer. The score reflected the strong start as UoN held a 11-22 lead at the end of the first period of play.

University of Nottingham Vice-Captain, Ruth Bentley

However, things didn’t start as well for UoN going into the second quarter. Coach Andrea Congreaves, who won Commonwealth Bronze in Melbourne 2006 as part of Team England, relied on all of her experience to reinvigorate her Nottingham side, as they weathered a second-quarter storm from a seemingly rejuvenated Bournemouth who levelled the match at 23-23. The visiting team called a time-out, which allowed Congreaves to introduce a string of tactical changes. The result saw the #GreenandGold benefit from a tactical foul and recapture a narrow 2-point lead at the halfway point, 26-25.

Both sides came out strong for the second half, clearly sensing that victory was within reach. But Bournemouth were the ones who found themselves taking a slight 29-28 lead as the quarter developed. With some excellent distance shots from both sides and free throws ticking the scores over, the game remained close and for most of the quarter it was no more than a 2 point game.

University of Nottingham, Veera Khanolkar

Bournemouth remained strong in both offense and defense as the game entered its final period. Unfortunately for UoN, they failed to find a way back into the game with the gap increasing to over 20 points. As the final few minutes of the quarter ticked by victory became out of reach for the Nottingham side despite a fantastic effort.

Final Score
Bournemouth University 77 – 49 University of Nottingham

Speaking after the game, UoN’s Head Coach, Andrea Congreaves said:

“First five minutes we were right where we needed to be. To be honest I think the occasion got to us. You’re at home and there’s a bit more pressure to be fair, everybody’s watching us.

For some of these girls this is the first time being in a final and they are maybe not used to how the pressure is going to take effect. We’ve still got more games to go as we’re in the play-offs and we’ll build from here but it’s disappointing at the same time.”

Vice Captain, Ruth Bentley also added:

“We started off really strongly and came out all guns blazing. We got up, got relaxed and then we felt comfortable and slacked off.

Basketball is a game of runs and momentum and once we’d lost the momentum we found it hard to get back into the match and we let it slip away from us.”

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