LMH no match for Wadham’s women
Basketball Cuppers is a welcome break for Blues star Cat Donovan. Besides refereeing a number of games, she captained a skilled Wadham team into the next round with a convincing victory over Lady Margaret Hall on Friday morning. The Wadham side bore down on LMH with great efficiency, and stifled any offensive attempts, running away with a 41-11 victory. The game was all Donovan early on.
Taking rebound after rebound with ease, she dropped the first five Wadham points of the game en route to eleven in the first half. Donovan was well-supported up front by Katie Taylor and Martha Kearney. The trio’s movement confounded the LMH defence, and Taylor found herself wide open on several occasions. She went on to score 6 of her 14 points in the first half, and helped propel Wadham to a 21-4 halftime lead.
Tara Sundararajan scored all four of LMH’s first-half points, and rebounded well alongside Beth Murtagh. The second half started no better for the LMH side, despite good tempo control from guard Hannah Yap. The visitors simply could not find any offensive momentum off the fast break, and Wadham were tremendously effective once set on defence. Despite substituting herself out for much of the second half, Donovan managed four more points to make it 15 on the day.
With ten minutes to go in the half, she swooped under the basket for an easy lay-in. Stealing the inbound pass, Wadham put up a shot that Donovan rose up to grab and kicked back out. Her obvious quality proved vital for team moral. Wadham’s other starting four were terrific in the second frame. Katie Taylor was deadly for eight points, and Leonie Smikle and Hedd Megchild contributed four points each to the Wadham cause.
LMH found solace in the fantastic defensive efforts of Annette Stiggelbout and Tara Sundararajan in the second frame. Stiggelbout flew down court to ensure that no Wadham lay-up went uncontested, and Sundararajan registered a solid five blocks for LMH. Nevertheless, Wadham’s ball movement would overwhelm the tiring LMH side, and the home team quickly removed all doubt from the result.
With five minutes left, Taylor and Martha Kearney went on a shooting spree, registering ten points between them in a matter of minutes. There was no looking back for Wadham, who are through to the next round by a convincing final score of 41-11.
8th Jun 2006