Fever Equal Club Record with Steel Win

The West Coast Fever has equalled its season wins club record with a 68-56 win in Perth over the Southern Steel.

In the Fever’s final home match of the 2013 season, the hosts showed glimpses of their very best form to defeat a Steel team that until this result had harboured hopes of featuring in the finals.

With both sides led by dominant shooting performances from their respective talls, it was the Fever’s ability to create longer periods of pressure that eventually proved telling, with a late third quarter and early fourth term burst from the hosts, putting the result to rest.

With WAIS athletes Caitlin Bassett, Verity Simmons, Ashleigh Brazill, Josie Janz and Andrea Gilmore all starting, the Fever was lifted by another impressive turn-out at their Challenge Stadium base. The Steel, reinforced by their finals prospects, jumped to an early start, but some swift mid-court interplay between Brazill and Simmons saw the Perth team peg back and eventually take a two goal lead into quarter time.

The Fever continued to press in the second term, stretching to a five goal lead, with Bassett receiving plenty of scoring opportunities, which she was converting, finishing the match with 41 goals at 93% accuracy.

The Steel however through the impressive shooting of Jhaniele Fowler (45 at 92%) refused to lay down, and the Fever – after seeing an eight goal lead shrink to just three – finished the third term with four of the last five goals, before continuing that intensity into the final stanza, with a further four unanswered goals to create a match winning lead that it would not relinquish.

Norma Plummer’s side sealed their fifth win of the ANZ Championship season to equal the five matches it won in 2009, with a final fixture away to the Melbourne Vixens looming as an opportunity to create a new slice of history for the club.