Stars shine bright as Steel fade
The Stars look every bit ANZ Premiership title favourites.
The south Auckland side continued its excellent start to the season yesterday, overcoming the Southern Steel 59-45 to make it four wins from four.
This is easily the best start to a season for the Stars, who were formed in 2017 for the first year of the New Zealand premiership.
They are well on track to shatter their record for most wins in a season, winning six round games in 2019 when they progressed to the grand final, losing to the Pulse.
The 59 goals scored by the Stars was their most this season from four games.
One of the rare disappointing aspects was the accuracy of Silver Ferns goal shoot Maia Wilson. Wilson converted 33 goals but would have been frustrated with her accuracy, missing 10 attempts and shooting at just 77 per cent – well down on her normal percentage, usually in the 90s.
Playing against her former Steel team-mates, Silver Ferns wing attack Gina Crampton again led the way for the Stars with another polished performance. The 47-test Fern has been in brilliant touch to begin the new season. She has been the standout player of the opening four weeks.
Crampton found herself in an interesting scenario, for the first time playing against the Steel, who she spent nine seasons with, playing 98 games and winning two titles.
She made life difficult for her former side, darting about the midcourt, hitting the circle edge, and finding her shooters effectively.
Defender Elle Temu had her best game of the season, shining in the defensive end alongside veteran Anna Harrison and keeping standout Steel shooter George Fisher contained.
English international Fisher had been a menace in the opening three rounds, scoring 46, 42 and 48 goals, but was restricted to 34 from 37 attempts.
A 5-0 run from the Stars late in the first half allowed them to open up a 28-19 buffer, signalling danger time for the Steel.
The Stars finished the first quarter strongly, netting four unanswered goals to jump out to a 16-12 advantage in the closing stages of the stanza.
Heading into the final quarter, the Stars were in control, leading 43-31, leaving the Steel with plenty to do.
The Steel refused to go away and gave themselves a sniff with a 7-3 start to the last quarter. The Stars were able to absorb the pressure though and coast to a comfortable win.
In the late match, the Tactix earned their first win of 2021 with a heart-stopping 63-59 win over the Waikato-Bay of Plenty in Christchurch.
After losing their opening three games of the season, the Tactix were in desperation mode in their home opener in front of just under 3000 at Christchurch Arena.
Lose to the Magic and the Tactix would have been thrown into crisis mode, needing to win the bulk of their remaining games to have any shot of making the finals.
Goal shoot Ellie Bird stepped up for the Tactix, landing 54 from 55 in a player of the match performance.