Barrow Thorns U16s Girls 63 Northamptonshire Titans 62

BARROW Thorns claimed a nail-biting one-point win over Northants after a stirring second-half comeback.

The hosts started well, but saw their determined visitors build a lead after two and three quarters, only for a late Thorns charge to seal the win at Hoops.

The sides had met twice before this season, with the Midlanders taking the spoils on both occasions.

But Barrow’s form has been improving of late and the team were still buoyant after their recent drubbing of Northants Lightning.

Thorns drew first blood with a point from the free-throw line through Milly Knowles, followed by a basket from Anna Brocklebank.

The first quarter turned into the Knowles-Brocklebank show as the pair linked up well to add 15 points between them.

Knowles was physically dominant around the basket and Brocklebank drove well to find routes to the bucket.

The Thorns team defence was generally good at this point, with all players working well to guard the home hoop.

As the quarter closed, Mollie Stronach, Caitlin Bilton and Hannah Jefferson added points to stretch Barrow into a 20-13 lead.

The second quarter was not so assured for the home side as everything good from the first quarter seemed to have gone missing.

Thorns turned the ball over too often, giving the visitors too many extra chances to score, which they capitalised on.

The home side looked tired and were slow to get back on defence, which was in stark contrast to the visitors, who ran the floor well to score easy baskets undefended.

Only Knowles was able to find any joy at the visitors’ basket and, by the end of the period, Barrow’s lead had been rubbed out and the Titans led 36-32.

After a heart-to-heart at half-time, Thorns came out with more determination and showed some fighting spirit and a belief that they could win.

Despite that, the visitors were able to stretch their lead to nine points early in the quarter, before Stronach seemed to decide that enough was enough and, on the back of a three-point shot, she raised her game and effort level to top gear and inspired the rest of the team to fight back.

Erin Doherty worked hard on defence to help thwart the visitors’ attacks and was quick to run the floor on offence too, providing an outlet from the Thorns basket.

Lucy Kirk was in the game and linked well with her team-mates to open up the Titans defence.

With baskets from Knowles, Stronach, Brocklebank and Bilton, Thorns started to claw their way back into the game.

The tired looking players from the second quarter seemed to have vanished and Barrow pushed hard, especially on defence, to turn their fortunes around.

The final 10 minutes started with Thorns trailing by just three points and they could sense victory was theirs to take.

The effort remained strong, but as both teams traded baskets the deficit stayed the same.

Bilton, Knowles and Brocklebank added the points needed to keep their hopes alive and young guard Sarah Dixon, playing in an under-16s game at only 13 years old, put in a good shift, causing problems for the visitors at the offensive end and getting stuck in to protect the Thorns basket.

With just a couple of minutes remaining, despite their best efforts, Thorns had not quite overcome their opponents. But some words of encouragement during a timeout and support from the bench and parents, gave them the extra spark they needed.

With less than a minute to go, Knowles found the basket to take Barrow into a one-point lead, which she eventually stretched to four points from the free-throw line.

Brocklebank and Stronach controlled the game from that point to run off the clock and keep possession.

A three-point basket from Titans was not enough at the end, with only one second left and Thorns just needed to hold the ball to seal a win, which – based on the second-half performance – was well deserved.

Scorers: Milly Knowles 40, Anna Brocklebank 8, Mollie Stronach 7, Caitlin Bilton 6, Hannah Jefferson 2.

Players-of-the-Match: Milly Knowles and Mollie Stronach.

Special Mention: Anna Brocklebank.