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A 51-goal haul to West Coast Fever shooter Caitlin Bassett has helped her side to a 63-60 victory over the struggling NSW Swifts in the trans-Tasman netball competition on Sunday.
Proving just as destructive as Queensland’s strike shooter Romelda Aiken, Bassett was near-impossible for the Swifts to defend as she found space at goal and out-smarted, out-reached and outclassed her opponents.
NSW coach Julie Fitzgerald used Samantha May, Emma Koster and Jessica Mansell at goalkeeper during the match to try to shut down the prolific free-scoring Bassett, but all failed to disrupt 192cm shooter, who finished the match with 51 goals from 54 attempts at 94 per cent accuracy.
The Fever were in front at each change and survived a final-quarter fightback to claim their second victory over the reigning premiers this year, and hand the lacklustre Swifts their seventh-straight loss.
The Swifts were trailing by as much as 10 goals in the final period before they went on a five-goal run, and showed some slick form, to narrow the deficit to two goals with three minutes on the clock.
But the youthful Fever side showed they could withstand the blow torch being applied to them by a far more experienced side.
They remained composed until the final whistle to claim another confidence-boosting win to match their season highlight, a one-goal victory in extra-time against the Swifts in round five.
Fever centre Shae Bolton, who sat out the first half of the match because she is recovering from the flu, said her enthusiastic team will continue to grow from seeing out close matches.
“It was a really important win for us because we had such a close game last time. It was important for us to come and back up that result,” Bolton said.
“We came back from a eight-goal (deficit) last time we played them to win the match so in my mind especially was thinking, ‘don’t let them do that to us’.
“It was definitely about just making sure that we stayed cool, calm and collected.
“We had the same situation again against the Firebirds earlier in the year in Queensland when we were up by a few goals and then it came into the last quarter and they came back, so that was in my mind as well, making sure that did not happen again.”
Swifts captain Catherine Cox, who shot 43 goals at 86 per cent and was assisted by a relatively quiet Susan Pratley (17), said her side failed to fire.
“They’re playing really well and we can’t stop Caitlin Bassett. I think that was apparent in the first game that we played them,” she said.
“I’m not saying there’s too much luck in (the result) because we throw crucial balls away. Yeah, it’s just not our year.”