St. Clare's 49 Cheney School 40

The Girls' Basketball team opened their 2012 campaign with a tenacious game against Cheney School, one of the best girls teams in the School League. St. Clare's only had 5 players available for the match: Alessia Passannanti, Marija Gvozdenovic, Lena Hansen, Mia Kraus and Karina Todorova.

A very dangerous position to be in as the team will be unable to play hard defensively, which will undoubtedly mean some easy baskets for Cheney. St. Clare's defensive plan was to put enough pressure on the ball to force a long pass and hopefully steal the pass, by using a 1-2-1-1 full court press. It was also important to protect Mia Kraus, St. Clare's centre and most pivotal player.

The team understood their task and executed well. The press worked perfectly and St Clare's seem to be scoring at will finishing the first half 23-14. Cheney School had a full bench and they tried a series of line up looking for something positive, but St. Clare's top defensive player, Karina Todorova and her back up guards Marija Gvozdenovic and Lena Hansen made sure Cheney stayed away from the basket. By the end of the 3rd quarter the lead had increased to 32-16 and Mia was clearly taking them apart offensively.

During the 4th quarter, Alessia Passannanti rolled her ankle during a rebound battle and had to be taken off the game. Despite this St. Clare's continued to push the ball and did not slow down their defensive pressure, but Cheney found it easier to find the open players and began a scoring frenzy to bring the game within their reach to 45-38. Then, Lena Hansen received an accidental elbow on the forehead and she had to be taken out of the game and Alessia stepped in just to stand under the basket. Amazingly Mia scored the last 4 points and St. Clare's won 49-40 in what was a game full of drama, pain, heart and sheer determination by a phenomenal group of girls.

Game MVP: Mia Kraus: 22 Pts
Scorers: Marija Gvozdenovic: 16 pts - Karina Todorova: 6 pts - Alessia Passannanti: 1 pt

January