On Wednesday 20 November, the women’s basketball 3rds took to court against Anglia Ruskin. Courtney Ricketts reports from a match that saw Loughborough well beaten, 38-77.
After the men’s match, Loughborough women’s 3rd team took to the court to compete against Anglia Ruskin. Having just seen the men take apart their competition, the women were looking to continue the Loughborough winning streak.
Like the men’s, the women’s match got off to a fast start. It saw both teams fighting for possession early in an attempt to sustain some sort of dominance over the other. Loughborough and Anglia Ruskin both managed to score some early points, showing their intent but come the end of the first quarter, Anglia Ruskin were holding a slight lead.
Although our girls were slightly behind, it did not affect the crowd’s enthusiasm. “Take it to the limit, take it to the top, girls from Loughborough can’t be stopped”, was just one of the many chants the supporters were using to encourage the team.
Entering the second quarter, Loughborough was first on court, demonstrating that they were still up for the fight. Loughborough started to produce some excellent play and started to hold a large portion of possession, which in turn was seeing points start to tally on to the scoreboard.
The only problem was that Anglia was responding to the situation, scoring points of their own and with two quarters to go, the scoreboard read 19-41 to the visitors.
At the start of the third quarter the chant was “defence, defence” but we needed baskets! The Loughborough girls knew this and started to play fluidly as a team, resulting in a number of quick consecutive baskets but with the opposition still putting points on the board, the supporters were very much right with what needed to ultimately be done.
When a time out was called for with 3:18 left on the clock, the score was 33- 57 in favour of the opposition. Loughborough’s captain took this as a chance to build some enthusiasm in the rest of the team and come the end of the time out, she led by example, creating great set plays and even adding some points to the board herself.
With 1:20 left on the clock in the third quarter, Loughborough’s number 10 took a tumble thanks to one of Anglia Ruskin’s players but thankfully with no apparent damage. It seemed the competition was not content with just leading the match.
At the end of the third quarter the score read 34-59 to Anglia. Loughborough girls were playing fantastically, but it was clear at this point it was going to be very tough to take a win from this position.
When the final quarter arrived, the opposition continued to assert their dominance with the opening basket. Loughborough did continue to fight hard but, in the end, the team just wasn’t strong enough to bring back the points needed.
Come the end of the match, the score read 38-77 in favour of Anglia Ruskin. In respect to the Loughborough girls, the score does not reflect the enthusiasm, effort and great play they performed throughout the match. They were simply unlucky this time round.
Courtney Ricketts
