Crystals Edge Notwane In Tense Netball Contest
Tumelo Mouwane | Monday September 19, 2016 14:59
The clash between the two was highly contested throughout until the students surprised Toronto girls with a five-point gap margin in the dying minutes of the game.
The start of the game saw both teams scoring a point after the other until they stood at 10-10 for a while before Notwane dominated possession in the second quarter. As the Toronto girls dominated momentarily, they increased the lead to 17-12, 20-24 and 26-19 respectively.
The students however could not stand watching the game get out of their hands. They made a rapid comeback to a three-point margin as they recovered 25-28 before they halted Notwane’s threats at 30-30 in the middle of the third quarter.
Shortly after, things took a different turn, UB girls could not let Notwane get out of sight as the students’ goal scorer, Kempho Ngongorego kept rolling the ball into the net. The game was at 34-34 before Notwane re-claimed the lead at set score 40-35 in the last quarter.
UB goal scorer, Violet Onneile however fought gallantly to pull back the scores at 43-43. The students henceforth maintained consistency until they pocketed the game 51-46 amid confusion in the Notwane defence. UB head coach, Abednico Chetilo said it was a good game for the spectators as the best team won the game.
“It was a good game for the spectators, all the teams played well but at the end of the day the best team won. It looked like a 50/50 game, but technically we had to switch on the technical aspects of it because we play with a lot of youngsters,” Chetilo said. “We tried to maintain the mental strength until the last quarter, we were really tight on the second quarter but on the third one, we really opened the margin. But I can say we must work on the mental strength,” he said.
Her Notwane counterpart, Sithulile Mlotshwa felt they played well but lacked mental strength in the last quarter.
“We lacked mental strength as we got into the last quarter, we played well throughout the game but we failed to finish it. Our girls are not yet mentally strong because they get excited when they lead,” she said.
“They are young players and we will work on that. I only had eight players today and I was playing the second game of the day against a team that was playing its first match and I would say that has affected the results,” Mlotshwa said.
Notwane had started the day brightly, claiming a 51-26 win over Prisons while the Jungle Kings also inflicted another defeat on Warderers, winning 55-40.