Magic happy to get win against Tactix
There was a banana skin on the floor in front of the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic on Monday night, but they avoided it with ease.
With a 19-goal win over the Mainland Tactix at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton, they opened up a two-point gap between themselves in second and the Central Pulse in third, which will remain there at least until the Pulse play the Northern Mystics on Wednesday.
It was a crucial two points, because it was an expected two points. The Tactix may not have won a game this season, but it might only take one upset for them to have a real say in how the playoff race pans out.
And while they might still get one, it won’t be the Magic who suffer, after they triumphed in a game that was tight early on, then opened up down the stretch.
‘‘A game against the Tactix is always going to be a bit of a grind,’’ said Magic midcourter Sam Sinclair.
‘‘They are a team that come out firing, and they have a lot in the tank, so it was up to us to grind them down over 60 minutes, and to have a good last quarter was really good.’’
Sinclair has thrived while playing at wing defence this season, having mostly featured at centre previously, and she said she was enjoying getting stuck in, in a role where her efforts can sometimes go unnoticed.
‘‘I’ve come to learn that it’s a very thankless position, and you do a lot on court - I feel - that you just have to do, and the work you do outside the circle sets things up for the likes of Kelly [Jury] and Casey [Kopua] at the back.
‘‘Often it’s a real grind and you don’t get the glamorous rewards, like an intercept, but wearing down the wing attack is the KPI - key performance indicator - for me, and I have to keep that in perspective going forward.’’
The Magic now face a stretch of three games that will define their season, starting with the Pulse in Palmerston North on Monday, a matchup they have won both times so far this season. Then comes the unbeaten Southern Steel, who they play in Auckland on Sunday, June 11, and the Mystics, who they play the following night - two teams they are yet to beat.
‘‘I think we perform really well under that sort of pressure,’’ Sinclair said. ’’We did something similar at the start of the season, and recently, we had 10 days off, and then we came back and we had three losses in a row [before the win over the Tactix], so hopefully it will be the opposite when it’s a short turnaround.’’