Bath washed out by Storm
12 May 2011
Surrey Storm took a huge psychological step as they head towards the end of season play-offs, taking down Team Bath in convinving 60 - 47 win at The University of Bath's Sports Training Village.
Coach Mary Beardwood opted to start the same 7 as the week before, with Greenway and Dunn in the shooting circle together and Cosentino across at WA. Despite a shaky start, losing their first centre pass to a held ball call, it was Storm who settled quicker than the home side and got their noses in front early on.
With their ball speed and vision in attack consistently finding both Dunn and Greenway in acres of space in the circle and Seaton, Holland and Reid forcing Bath into some uncharacteristic errors, Storm began to steadily increase their lead throughout the first period. With a combined 23 shooting opportunities in the quarter Storm were putting Bath under increased amounts of pressure to stick with them and despite Bath and England goal attack Cookey producing her first of 3 perfect shooting quarters of the game, Bath were kept to just 12 opportunities which showed in the score line at the first break, Storm leaving the court 17-11 up.
The second quarter saw Baths England defenders Francis and Beckford-Chambers switch back to their more familiar roles with Francis tasked with stopping Greenways play-making in attack and Beckford-Chambers back to stop the constant flow of ball into Dunn. Despite these changes, the second period was all Storm again. Storm defenders Holland and Reid were on fire, producing a number of impressive intercepts to provide shooting machine Dunn with plenty of opportunities. Storms patience in attack and accurate feeding from both Cosentino and Trippick left Bath's defensive circle frustrated and limited their turnover chances. With Greenway putting in some serious miles out on the court, taking a lot of the ball, Storm put together some awesome passages of play and were clearly enjoying themselves. Bath however never really settled and by half time were trailing by 14 as Storm pulled out to a 34-20 lead.
Half-time saw Bath ring the changes again with Jess Garland deciding to change tact and go for more movement in their shooting circle with Tett in for Allison and nippy WA Ritchie on. With a new focus and fresh legs, Bath put together a 3 goal run before Storm registered their first goal of the second half. However, with Storm's defence forcing Bath to work hard for their shooting opportunities and their attack continuing to be patient, Bath failed to pull back with any significance.
With Francis coming out with 2 impressive intercepts through the court, Storm were guilty of being too casual with the ball at times and the quarter saw some scrappy passages of play. Despite a 100% shooting quarter from Greenway, Storm were kept to just 13 attempts and with Bath slotting 13 of their 15 they pulled the lead back to 11 going into the final 15 minutes trailing 44-33 and Storm looking in control.
With victory in sight Storm never looked back as they looked to close out the game. The final 15 minutes saw a fourth Bath combination take to the court with Allison back on at GS. This change again resulted in a 3 goal run from the home team and with the crowd getting behind their side, Storm had to work hard to stop the run. A Reid intercept and long bomb from Dunn settled the nerves as Storm continued to stick to their game plan and kept the score board ticking over. A final flurry of goals saw Storm hit another 60 goals to claim an impressive away victory, 60-47.
Storm GA and captain, Tamsin Greenway was deservedly named player of the match. Coach Mary Beardwood was delighted by the win: "The girls were great today. They stuck to the game plan and were patient right the way through the court. Our defence are improving with every game and are really starting to establish themselves as a unit to be weary of. Katy did a fantastic job on Pam today and Tamsin was solid in attack."
"I’m really pleased with the whole team performance today and although we have more to build on over the next few weeks, it’s a great result in the run-up to Mavericks on Sunday and on into the playoffs."
