MELBOURNE, Australia, CMC – Jamaica international Jhaniele Fowler kept up her relentless scoring, but West Coast Fever has knocked off the top spot in the Australian Super Netball Championship after a surprise defeat to Melbourne Vixens.
Playing at the John Cain Arena here on Sunday, Fever went down 74-73 after trailing 37-35 at the half to record only their second defeat.
Fowler, the league’s leading shooter, finished with 48 goals from 49 attempts but could not stop Vixens from avenging a similar one-goal defeat in the season’s opening round.
For the winners, Mwai Kumwenda led with 45 from 50 attempts, the Malawi international crucially knocking down super-shots (two-goal attempts) at the close of the second and third quarters.
She was supported by Kiera Austin, who scored 23 from 29 attempts and produced the decisive action in the contest with a superb super-shot on the final buzzer.
Fever trailed by five early in the contest but rebounded by only two, 18-16, after the end of the first quarter before finding themselves still in touch at the break.
They had the better of the exchanges in the third quarter to come away with a narrow 54-53 lead before the drama unfolded in the final quarter.
In Sunday’s other game at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney, another Jamaica Sunshine Girl, Romelda Aiken-George, starred, but her side came out on the right end of the result, as New South Wales Swifts took down Sunshine Coast Lightning, 67-63.
Aiken-George led with 38 goals from 47 attempts, while Helen Housby was perfect with 15-from-15 shooting.
Cara Koenen scored 37 goals from 42 attempts for the Lightning, who featured Sunshine Girls defender Kadie-Ann Dehaney in their lineup.
Swifts trailed by two after the first quarter but hit back strongly to eke out a 35-34, one-point lead at the break before coming up with another sterling effort in the third quarter to outscore Lightning 18-15 and be ahead 53-49 at the start of the final quarter.
On Saturday, also in Sydney, Sunshine Girls defender Shamera Sterling played a key role in stifling Giants shooters as Adelaide Thunderbirds carved out a 54-50 victory to move top of the league.
Thunderbirds squandered a three-goal half-time lead to be down 40-41 at the end of the third before charging back in the final quarter to outscore the Giants 14-9.
In the other game played Saturday at Nissan Arena in Brisbane, Collingwood Magpies, with Jamaican defenders Shimona Nelson and Jodi-Ann Ward, suffered a 73-67 defeat at the hands of Queensland Firebirds.
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