Netball: No Magic celebration for de Bruin

Leana de Bruin's hopes of celebrating her 100th match with a win were thwarted at Mount Maunganui's ASB Arena last night by the unbeaten Melbourne Vixens.

The defending champions prevailed over the injury ravaged Kia Magic by 51-48 to rain on de Bruin's parade but the 37-year-old defender showed why she is regarded as one of the world's best defenders with a fine performance.

Her combination with 19-year-old Kristiana Manu'a continues to flourish and they made the Vixens shooters Karyn Bailey and Tegan Philip work hard for every goal.

The Magic led 13-12 after the first quarter. Goal shoot Malia Paseka and goal attack Ellen Halpenny made positive starts against the Vixens highly regarded defenders in captain Bianca Chatfield, who played her 100th game last week, and Geva Mentor.

Jamie-Lee Price started at centre and the 20-year-old looked assured with a wide range of skills and combined well with the excellent Grace Rasmussen.

The Magic stayed with the experienced Vixens in the second stanza to go into the break level at 27-27 and raise expectations of a memorable home win among the good sized crowd watching.

But crucially the goals dried up for Paseka in the third quarter and the Vixens quickened the pace in transition down the court.

The Vixens led 43-38 going into the final 15 minutes but the Magic fought back well winning a series of turnovers and taking the lead 48-47 with less than six minutes left. It was gripping stuff that had the vocal crowd living every pass. The Vixens managed to sink more of the clutch shots in the last few minutes to take it 51-48.

There is no doubt the Vixens are a class outfit as befitting the defending champions. They must be better than even odds to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since the ANZ Championship began in 2008.

But they were given their toughest game of the season by a Magic team that can take great heart from two competitive performances at ASB Arena considering the overall inexperience of their team. On this form they have every chance of taking out the New Zealand conference.