Young Panthers hold nerve to claim first league win
Panthers came back from the brink to conquer Clan in a promising first home showing of the South U19s Division Two season.
Eva Bourgaize played the role of super substitute in the 43-41 victory at Beau Sejour, having been thrown in at GA following an apparent unravelling of her side’s game where they conceded a 10-goal scoring run and then lost star shooter Vicky Yabsley to injury.
The particularly young Bourgaize, who was playing U16s last season, earned player of the match after making some of the critical shots under pressure that her side needed to snatch the win.
‘It goes to show that we’ve got depth in our squad, which is also really, really helpful to make sure we’re not just relying on seven players to see us through,’ coach Bridget Yabsley said afterwards.
‘Eva did a cracking job when she came on. Having to come on without a planned change in that position just goes to prove that the girls can cope with sudden changes – and they adapted today.’
The result marked a significant improvement on their season-opening defeat at Bs, where struggling to adapt to the opposition’s height proved a major shortfall.
The match started with little resistance either way as both sides converted their centre passes seamlessly to make it 4-all.
Turnovers then crept into the game and High Wycombe’s Clan were initially the better for it, sneaking two goals ahead, only for Guernsey to hit their stride at the end and edge the quarter 11-10.
Panthers maintained their momentum to secure a half-time lead of 23-19, fuelled by the near-perfect shooting of Yabsley junior and GS Taylor Callanan.
Also pivotal was an excellent defence spearheaded by GK Erin Sullivan, with Evie Robinson linking it all together at centre.
Panthers were 26-20 up in quarter three when Clan struck their monstrous scoring run, followed by another big blow for the Sarnians when Yabsley, their star performer at Bs, went down and needed to be helped off court.
The home team battled back after the enforced break, ending the quarter 30-27 down and then equalising five minutes into the final stanza.
Nerves were fraying as Panthers fell four behind, only to level again and start another sequence of going goal for goal.
Ultimately, a big turnover followed by an even bigger shot from Bourgaize broke the sequence and Panthers then converted their final centre pass to secure the two-goal victory.
Coach Yabsley said the girls were ‘over the moon’ with their first win.
‘It’s a league that we’re not used to playing in and it’s a bit of an unknown quantity, even though we have played Clan at lower age groups,’ she added.
‘Just to have a win under our belt means that we know we can compete, we can contend in the league.’
Clan’s particularly tall GS, Zoe Holligan, was the opposition player of the match.
