Southland Sport
The undefeated Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel were back to their immaculate best, completely dominating their top-of-the-table clash with Te Wananga O Raukawa Pulse, 80-44, in Porirua tonight.
It was a jaw-dropping, yet clinical performance from the Steel, which captain Wendy Frew described as their best yet in the ANZ Premiership. A mighty long-range shot from Jhaniele Fowler-Reid right on the final buzzer brought up her 66th goal of the game, and summed up the mood of the match.
The Pulse appeared to have suffered from a nine-day break between games, playing well short of what their loyal Wellington fans were expecting to see.
The Steel’s supremacy was obvious from the outset. In an incredible opening quarter, the Steel poured on the pressure at one end and racked up the goals at the other – leading 23-10 at the first break.
Gina Crampton and Shannon Francois perfected the sky hook pass over the heads of the Pulse defenders and into the telescopic arms of Jhaniele Fowler-Reid. Te Paea Selby Rickit wasn’t content to play second fiddle, pulling off clever flick passes and putting up her own share of shots. It rarely took more than three passes through court for the ball to be popped through the hoop.
The Steel defence completely shut down the Pulse attack to begin the second spell, denying the Pulse shooters any ball for the first four minutes. The Steel had added five to their total before the Pulse responded.
Little went right for the home side as panic set in. But as the quarter progressed, Whitney Souness and Sara Bayman began to gather confidence, and found a few more gaps to fire the ball through to Cat Tuivaiti, who was working tirelessly to claim possession (and rounded out the game with 26 from 28 attempts).
Nevertheless, the halftime score of 42-24 showed just how dominant the Steel had been through every one of those first 30 minutes.
The onslaught continued as Steel coach Reinga Bloxham asked her side for an even more clinical performance from the second half. The athletic Jane Watson kept adding to her outstanding tally of seven intercepts and 10 deflections as the chasm between the two sides opened out to almost unbelievable 30 goals.
While the experienced Pulse defenders Katrina Grant and Phoenix Karaka pulled out all the stops to try to deny the Steel scoring machine, it kept rolling on. When the final outcome of the game was clearly obvious early in the fourth quarter, both teams took the opportunity to ring the changes.
Official Result and Stats:
Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel 80 def Te Wananga o Raukawa Pulse 44
Champion Data Match Centre:
Shooting Stats – Pulse
Tuivaiti: 26/28 @ 93%
Metuarau: 11/18 @ 61%
Amaru-Tibble: 7/8 @ 88%
Shooting Stats – Steel:
Fowler-Reid: 66/70 @ 94%
Selby-Rickit: 14/21 @ 67%
Hume: 0/2 @ 0%
MVP: Jane Watson (Steel)