Steel 52
Mystics 50
The Southern Steel have fought off a strong-finishing Northern Mystics side to keep their ANZ Championship top-four hopes alive.
The Steel are bidding to become just the second New Zealand side to make it beyond the regular season in the transtasman league, but last night's round-11 performance hardly instills confidence that they have the goods.
After holding a commanding 15-goal lead midway through the second quarter, the Steel lost their way through the middle stages of the match, allowing the Mystics to claw their way back into the game and almost pull off an unlikely victory.
Steel captain Adine Wilson was disappointed her side couldn't compose themselves in the face of the Mystics fightback and build on their healthy advantage.
"It was really frustrating, we had that big lead and we seemed to take our foot off the pedal, which you just can't do against these sorts of teams," said Wilson.
However she was pleased her side played smart netball in the pressure-filled final quarter to snare the crucial two points. The win puts the Steel fourth on the ladder, but their semifinal chances remain on shaky ground with three tough games to go.
The Steel meet fellow top-four aspirants the Queensland Firebirds in Brisbane next weekend, before coming home to meet the Adelaide Thunderbirds and NSW Swifts in the closing rounds.
After a 24-goal thrashing at the hands of the Thunderbirds last weekend, the Mystics looked low on confidence in the early stages last night.
The Steel's swarming zone defence caused the Mystics huge problems early on, as they struggled to find an easy path into the goal circle.
With the disjointed Mystics attack lacking drive, the Steel picked off intercept after intercept.
As the turnover count grew the Mystics became increasingly frustrated, letting more basic errors creep into their game.
The Steel made the most of the messy opening from the Mystics, opening out a nine-goal lead. But a flurry of goals saw the Mystics claw back the deficit to 14-9 at the first break.
Just when it looked as though the Mystics had settled into the game, the Steel increased the pressure in the second spell, meaning the Aucklanders had another untidy start to a quarter.
Jade Topia was brought on at goal-shoot in the second quarter to bring more mobility into the Mystics shooting circle, with the long reach of Steel defenders Megan Hutton and Katrina Grant spoiling any lifted ball. But it took some time for Topia's combination with Pamela Cookey to settle.
There were no such problems down the other end of the court. Donna Wilkins and Daneka Wipiiti formed a slick combination to keep the Steel side of the scoreboard ticking over, opening up a commanding 25-13 lead by midway through the second spell.
But the Mystics once again launched a gutsy fightback late in the second quarter, outscoring the home side 8-3 in the seven minutes leading up to halftime to trail 21-28 at the main break.
Having got themselves back in the match the Mysticscontinued to make ground on the Steel in the third quarter.
Temepara George, perhaps trying to make up for some horror passages of play in the opening two quarters, came out noticeably fired up after the break, picking off a couple of brilliant intercepts and being a general menace on defence.
After looking slick and polished early on, the Steel attack end suddenly got the wobbles as the committed Mystics defence fought for every ball.
By the end of the third quarter, the Steel's lead had been cut back to 39-35 giving the Mystics a sniff of victory.
But with their season on the line the Steel managed to compose themselves down the stretch, playing safe and steady netball to run in an unconvincing victory.
