Pulse find comfort zone in easy win
Building and holding big leads wouldn’t be the first thing you associated with the Central Pulse.
Heartbreaking losses or unfulfilled potential, sure. But wins as comfortable and convincing as Monday’s 55-37 effort over the Northern Stars have been a rarity.
This was an occasion, though, when the hosts got up at TSB Bank Arena, stayed up and never looked like losing.
‘‘Today was the best time we’ve done that. We have got leads, like against the Mystics when we let them come back, so today was definitely the best we’ve done at putting our foot down,’’ Pulse captain Katrina Grant said.
If there’s such a thing as laying a platform in netball, then Grant credited centre Sara Bayman and
wing attack Whitney Souness with doing that. Not, as you’d usually expect, with their attacking play, but the way they defended the Stars.
That helped Grant and fellow defenders Claire Kersten and Phoenix Karaka to compete for intercepts and deflections and, pleasingly, keep the visitors beneath the 40-goal barrier.
The only real area of dissatisfaction was the Pulse’s own inability to cherish possession as much as they might need to down the track in this national netball premiership.
‘‘I think we had 30 turnovers, which is too many .... probably you’d want 20 or less losses, so probably a lost possession-rate of under four per cent. It is hard but it is what you aim for,’’ said Grant.
The Stars made a fairly fast start, but the Pulse gradually got into their work and went into quarter-time 11-9 up. Led by goal shoot Cathrine Tuivaiti, the decisive progress was made in the second quarter and from 28-17 at halftime there was only going to be one winner.
Tuivaiti’s playmaking was a real feature. Often wing attacks, even goal attacks, will run things down that end of the court but at the Pulse - be it with words, looks, gestures or her own array of passes - it’s Tuivaiti in charge.
‘‘Cat’s the experienced one down there. Tiana [goal attack Tiana Metuarau] is first year in, Whitney has been around for a couple of years but this is her first year actually starting and playing a lot of netball and Sara’s new into the comp, so Cat kind of has to step up and she does it and she does a great job of it,’’ Grant said.
Tuivaiti’s reward for a good night was to sit the last five minutes out, as Pulse coach Yvette Mccausland-durie gave most of her bench some court-time. Metuarau finished with 31 from 36 to go with Tuivaiti’s 22/23, on a pretty satisfactory night.
The final quarter wasn’t quite as convincing as they’d hope but victory still pushed them up to second in the competition, even if the third-placed Waikato-bay of Plenty Magic can climb back over them by beating the Northern Mystics in Hamilton on Wednesday.
The Pulse move on to meet the Mainland Tactix in Christchurch on Monday.