Fever Shock Reigning Champs

In the upset of the season, the West Coast Fever has defeated reigning premiers Melbourne Vixens at Hisense Arena 56-53.

WAIS Goal Shooter Caitlin Bassett showed why she is the competition’s leading goal scorer, sinking an incredible 46 from 49 attempts against the Australian Diamonds goal keeper Bianca Chatfield.

It’s the first time Fever have defeated the Vixens in ANZ Championship history, and it’s their first win at Hisense Arena.

The match began evenly balanced, as both coaches made surprise selections. Janelle Lawson started in goal attack, while Wendy Jones became the third starting centre in as many weeks as the Vixens tried to repair their midcourt after the loss of former Diamond Natasha Chokljat.

The Vixens were out to an early lead on the back of some great shooting by Caitlin Thwaites, and headed into the first break leading 17-12.

Fever replaced WAIS scholarship holder Susan Fuhrmann with Bianca Reddy, and the move seemed to work in Fever’s favour as Reddy and captain Johannah Curran (WAIS) kept Vixens co-captain Sharelle McMahon to just three goals at 50% accuracy in the second term.

Fever went into half-time down by five, and coach Jane Searle took the opportunity to make a number of changes. Emma Beckett came on to goal defence as Joh Curran shifted to wing defence, while Leah Shoard replaced Janelle Lawson as goal attack.

It was a fantastic effort by Shoard to take the court, as she hadn’t trained all week after being concussed in last week’s match.

The third quarter was a Fever revival, as the defensive combination of Beckett, Reddy and Curran pressured the Vixens into nine turnovers for the quarter, while at the other end, Caitlin Bassett was unstoppable with 13 straight goals, to draw Fever level heading into the final quarter.

The final quarter became a shoot-out as both teams went goal for goal. Caitlin Thwaites put her side into the lead, after a great intercept by Julie Corletto, but Fever showed they had the composure to match, as an Emma Beckett steal levelled scores once again.

With just a few minutes remaining, Vixens began to panic and the Fever capitalized. Caitlin Bassett continued to steady her side with a run of goals, as Fever went out to a four goal lead.

And despite the best efforts of the Vixens defence, Fever held on for their second win of the year.

Bassett, who has nearly 300 goals for the season so far, was delighted with the win.

“Obviously we`ve had some disappointing losses, but we just proved tonight we can run out a whole game. In those last five minutes, we just wanted to push it home, and when we were up by a couple of goals, I knew we had it,” she said.

Fever returned to Perth on Tuesday for a well-earned rest week, as they have a bye this weekend.

– Netball WA