In the first SBC Game of the Week of 2018, we were in Cumbernauld to watch the Lady Rocks play host to the Edinburgh University Women’s 1sts. After controlling the tempo of the game for the majority of the match, Edinburgh University came away with the 72-53 win on the road.

After both teams took their time on finding their feet on offense, It would be Edinburgh University captain, Dori Lansbach who would hit first for the away side as she knocked down a three off a drive and kick from Murron Marr. Erin Gilbride responded straight away for the home team, driving inside for the layup on the other end. The University side then proceeded to go on an 8-4 run, in part the result of Sian Phillips excellent work on the offensive glass, grabbing a number of offensive boards leading to putbacks and second-chance possessions. Along with another three from the corner by Lansbach, this allowed the University side to jump out to an 11-6 lead and forced Rocks’ coach Colin Haldane to call an early timeout.

“Sian Phillips had an amazing game,” said Edinburgh University coach, Jordan Webb, “She was amazing rebounding the basketball, she just kept battling, kept fighting. I want to watch the game back and count how many rebounds that girl got because it can’t be under 20”

Coming out of the timeout, Rocks would proceed to narrow the deficit as Rhona Mitchell checked into the game and scored 4 points for her team to lift them over the edge and tie the game at 16-apiece. Cathy Mitchell then made a shot in the paint to give Rocks an 18-16 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Shawnisey Millar would have a big impact in the second quarter, as she knocked down two consecutive three-pointers to give the University side the lead once again. Erin Gilbride would answer back straight away, taking advantage of the slow transition defense to get inside for the finish.

Turnovers would hurt Rocks for the rest of the game however, as they struggled to get out of their own half on a number of occasions leading to fast break buckets by Edinburgh University on the other end. Whilst Rocks opted to look for Cathy Mitchell and Nadelle Strain inside for the inside look, Edinburgh kept up their solid shooting from outside into the second quarter as Millar and Hansine Marshall both knocked down shots from long range. As the first half came to a close, Edinburgh narrowly lead the Rocks 34-31.

Edinburgh University’s momentum from the first half clearly carried over into the second half as they continued to hold the lead. Shawnisey Millar would add another 5 points and Sian Phillips continued to be relentless inside as well as in the open floor, taking the ball coast-to-coast on a number of occasions. However, Erin Gilbride would score 8 points in the quarter to keep the home side in the game. As Cathy Mitchell and Lisa Haldane both made shots at the end of the quarter to narrow the score to 54-47 it was looking like the tide was turning in Rocks’ favour.

Unfortunately, that momentum did not carry over into the final quarter for Rocks, and Edinburgh University would outscore the home team 18-6 to finish the game. Hansine Marshall scored 5 straight points at the beginning of the quarter, spurning the University side into a run that would see them take a resounding 72-53 lead by the end of the game.

“There were too many turnovers due to the pressure applied by the University team.” Said Rocks’ coach, Colin Haldane, “We never gave up and worked hard to get back in the game on two occasions but had nothing left at the end.”

When it was all said and done, Shawnisey Millar would finish with 18 points for the game, with Sian Phillips and Hansine Marshall also adding 12 points each. Erin Gilbride was Rocks leading scorer with 19 points.

Edinburgh University coach, Jordan Webb was very proud of his team’s performance;

“Tough game, lady rocks are a tough team, they compete every time we know that. I’m just proud of my guys, we’re dealing with inconsistency and there’s quite a lot of ups and downs, we’re just trying to maintain a level of focus and intensity and I think that’s what brought us home today, because obviously it looks like a big win in the end but most of the game it was pretty close but I though we just stayed to our values and did what we were supposed to do.”

Lady Rocks next fixture will see them take on St. Mirren on the 14th of January. Edinburgh University now have a bit of a break from SBC action until their rematch in the Cup Final against Lady Rocks on the 28th of January.

Want to see these two teams in action? Tickets are still available for their Cup Final matchup at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2018-sbc-scottish-cup-final-weekend-tickets-41450720220