KEY POINTS:
The Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic were back to their fluid best as they overwhelmed West Coast Fever 61-47 in a transtasman netball championship match in Hamilton today.
The Silver Ferns-laden Magic were simply too good for the Fever who, despite having beaten the Northern Mystics 49-45 last weekend, looked a little out of their depth.
A tweak of the defensive zone paid off for Magic coach Noeline Taurua-Bennett who moved Joline Henry into wing defence with Jodi Tod coming at goal defence to partner Casey Williams.
This saw the Magic move the ball quicker and with more precision into the shooting circle than their opponents.
Henry was influential from wing defence, making a number of interceptions and thrilled the home crowd with her rifled passes to goal shoot Irene Van Dyk.
Williams also had a major impact on the game, cutting off a number of feeds with her well-timed interceptions.
The match was evenly poised for just five minutes when at 5-5 goal attack Maria Tutaia captured a rebound and tipped the ball back to Van Dyk who made no mistake with her shot to give Magic the break they needed to pull away.
With wing attack Amigene Metcalf and centre Laura Langman given free rein in attack by the Fever, there was a huge supply of ball for Tutaia and Van Dyk to pot the goals and they combined to sink 61 from 70 attempts in the game.
At 17-14 in the first quarter, Magic pulled away to a 33-21 lead at halftime, a gap that proved too much for the Fever.
A rev-up from coach Sue Gaudion at halftime saw the Fever match the Magic goal for goal in the third when both teams shot 15 goals each.
But loose passing in the final quarter saw Gaudion's side lose ground in the final quarter.
The Magic easily pulled away to win 61-47 and send their fans home happy in the knowledge they were back to their winning ways after losing 47-50 away to the New South Wales Swifts last week.
The Magic, who now have three wins and a loss, next play the Central Pulse at home.
"We needed a good one after last week, we knew we had let ourselves down," Magic captain Amigene Metcalfe said.
She said the team didn't do anything too drastic midweek but concentrated on what they had done wrong the previous weekend including fine-tuning their defence.
"It's a great crowd and their reaction was just an added incentive for us to do well today."
West Coast fever captain Stacey Rosman said she saw several positive aspects from her team and when they played at their own pace they managed to penetrate the Magic defence more readily.
"We've got to take responsibility as players.
"In the first half we put too much ball up in the air and they (Magic) were quite effective there. We gave them the ball and it didn't help us at all," she said.
"I think we showed tremendous fight in that last quarter and when we played with some patience and percentage netball, we showed that we could get through. We opened them up quite well then.
She was glowing in her praise for young shooter Caitlin Bassett.
"She's fantastic, she puts a lot of goals up for us," Rosman said."
- NZPA
