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Match report by Jed Forson and photography by David Crichton
The Gladiators suffered a nail biting loss to Swiss side BCF Elfic to begin their FIBA EuropeCup women’s campaign.
Elfic are the undefeated Swiss champions so it was a tough task to begin the campaign for the Gladiators.
The starters for Chantelle Handy’s side were: Kirsty Brown, Mathilde Domenger, Maya Price, Hannah Robb and Kat Tudor.
It was a slow start for the Gladiators on offence before their defence kicked into gear and they were able to force their opponents into turnovers while the offence warmed up. They even forced them into an eight second violation, a testament to the effort of picking up full court from every player on the court.
It was a physical game with both sides picking up a number of fouls and entering the bonus due to the intensity and effort on display.
But due to some good three point shooting in contrast to their opponents who failed to hit one in the first half; capitalising from turnovers doubling their opponents points from turnovers and 16 points from the bench meant the Gladiators entered the half time break up by seven points.
In the third quarter the Gladiator offence was again slow to start, but unlike the first half this continued for the whole quarter with the Gladiators scoring just six points. Unlike the first half, the defence was not strong enough to support this slump, so they entered the fourth down by three.
Unfortunately while the defence improved down the stretch and the offence came back to life a late rally to bring the lead down to two wasn’t enough and the Swiss outfit left Playsport as the victors with a final score of 62-66.
MVP on a disappointing night for the Gladiators was Kat Tudor who finished with 14 points, four rebounds and two steals.
Next up for the Gladiators is a trip to Durham on Saturday afternoon.
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