Steel shine against Tactix
The Steel outclassed the Tactix 70-52 in an emotion fuelled ANZ Premiership game in Invercargill yesterday.
In a game where the events of Friday were still at the forefront of the minds of all players, particularly those in the Tactix team, the result seemed fairly unimportant.
However, both teams went out with a spirit of trying to play the best netball possible and it produced a quality and entertaining game, but one where the Steel were clearly the better team.
Tactix players were fighting back the tears during a moment’s silence for those who lost their lives in the terrorist attack.
It was clear the Tactix were playing on emotion right from the early stages of this game and they went out to a 7-3 lead in the first quarter. But the Steel got themselves into a rhythm, scoring the last five goals of the opening quarter to be up 16-11 after the first period.
Abby Erwood and Te Huinga SelbyRickit both did a superb job in shutting down the supply to Tactix’s goal shoot, Ellie Bird, which was crucial as Bird was outstanding under the net.
At halftime the Steel were up 33-24, with Lenize Potgieter and Te Paea Selby-Rickit both in lethal form.
The Tactix showed plenty of spirit in the third quarter, even though Shannon Saunders was controlling so much of the play around the centre of the court.
Earlier in the day the Magic picked up their second win of the Premiership, beating the hapless Mystics 42-34 in the lowest scoring game in the history of the competition.
Both teams had struggled during the opening three rounds of the season, with just one win between them, so this fixture did have something of a must-win feel about it.
However, it was far from finals type netball as both teams were guilty of inconsistent play.
But the defence and midcourt was where this game was won by the Magic, with Casey Kopua and Samantha Sinclair both impressive.
Mystics 34