Knox Raider Hollie Grima scored 35 points in Sunday’s loss to North-West Tasmania.IT WAS supposed to be the grand parade of two Australian Opals in Knox Ford Raiders uniforms, but for Hollie Grima and new recruit Emma Randall Sunday’s SEABL women’s match against North-West Tasmania wasn’t the homecoming they were expecting.
With Randall playing her first game at Knox Converse Stadium, plenty of interested onlookers appeared more than content early in the game as Grima and Randall seemingly netted every opportunity that came their way.
Despite Knox’s early offensive dominance, the Thunder continued to generate enough good baskets of their own and clung to the hope that a high work ethic would pay dividends down the stretch.
Having played in Brisbane the previous night, many thought the visitors would struggle to run out the second half, but it was a fresh Knox that struggled to maintain the pace when it most mattered.
The Thunder closed the gap to just six points at three-quarter time. Both Grima and Randall continued to dominate, however, the visitors had clear winners at the opposite end with Kristen Veal, Penny Fulton and Zoe Carr landing plenty of points.
Knox failed to ignite in the last quarter, providing the Thunder with an opportunity that they quickly snapped up, pushing clear at one stage to lead by seven points.
The Raiders, looking flat and almost certainly out of the contest, rallied one last time and levelled the scores with less than 30 seconds on the clock. North-West failed to land a winner, as Knox did in the last few seconds, which forced the game to overtime.
Much like the start of the last quarter, the visitors looked hungrier and gathered momentum, but this time they didn’t let it go and held on to record a huge upset, winning 100-93.
Better players for the Raiders included Grima (35 points, 17 rebounds) and Randall (23 points, 13 rebounds), while Veal (31 points) was a star for the Thunder.
Sitting third on the ladder, the Raiders travel to Albury this Saturday night to play the seventh-placed Lady Bandits.
Meanwhile, the Knox men enjoyed a timely bye on the weekend and will relish the opportunity to freshen up ahead of a crucial game against the Bandits this Saturday.
Sitting fourth on the South Conference ladder, the Raiders have lost their last three games and quickly need to find form to be a realistic threat come finals time.
