Narrowest of Margins Denies Fever First up Roadtrip Win
The West Coast Fever’s New Zealand road trip has started with a one-goal loss to a determined Southern Steel side in Dunedin.
Some glimpses of brilliances from Fever weren’t quite enough in the first quarter, Norma Plummer’s side finding themselves under Steel pressure from the first whistle.
Josie Janz (WAIS) and Ashleigh Brazill (WAIS) both gained possession from glory intercepts, and nice movement under the post gave the team plenty to work on going into the second term, only three goals down; 16 to Steel’s 19.
Pitman teamed up beautifully with Caitlin Bassett (WAIS) at the start of the second, some great feeds coming both on and off the circle edge. Beckford-Chambers worked hard on Fowler-Reid to bring the score to within one with eight minutes to go, but the ball continued to be turned over by both sides.
An unconverted intercept by Watts signalled an injury time-out to the Fever, allowing Courtney Bruce (WAIS) to replace Janz and Shae Bolton (WAIS) to come on for Brazill with three minutes till half time. The front end kept their team positive with 100% shooting, but the score went out to 37 – 29 in Steel’s favour.
Brazill returned to court wearing the centre bib in the third quarter, and injected some impressive movement through the Fever midcourt. Australian 21U defender Courtney Bruce teamed up well with her counterpart to restrict some of Jodi Brown’s movement, and the scores tied back to 40 a piece with nine minutes left on the clock.
The game continued to swing back and forth; both teams making the most of any opportunity. Shae Bolton relished her defensive role and the Fever found themselves winning the quarter by five, and only three down overall (49 – 52) with a quarter left to play.
The fourth quarter began with a trademark Bassett goal, Plummer having made no changes to the seven on court. Some strong Steel play gave Fever a few more goals to find early on in the fourth, but some slick Pitman/Medhurst movement kept plenty of ball in their shooting circle.
The Dunedin crowd gave plenty of support to an impressive Fowler-Reid under the post – the Jamaican doing plenty to keep the Fever pair busy. A power feed from Bolton signalled a Steel injury time-out, the score tied with three minutes left at 63 all.
Brazill was amazing on the circle edge; a lifeline to her counterparts in keeping the game tight till the last seconds, but the centre pass timing was in Steel’s favour and they took the win by a solitary goal – 66 to Fever’s 65.
Fever has the opportunity to rectify the result next week as they travel to Tauranga to face the WBoP Magic on Sunday 30thMarch.
-NetballWA