MELBOURNE, CMC – Another scoring master class from ace Jamaica goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard enabled the West Coast Fever to finish the Super Netball League season with a 76-57 win against the Melbourne Mavericks on Saturday in Australia.
Fowler-Nembhard, the runaway leading scorer this season and eight-time League most valuable player, was again unstoppable, and she netted 68 goals from 69 attempts in front of a record-breaking, sold-out crowd at the RAC Arena in the western Australia city of Perth.
She won the battle of Jamaican goal shooters with Shimona Jok, whose 30 from 34 failed to inspire her side and put them out of contention for the playoffs.
“Kudos to the girls, they worked hard [in this match], and all I could do is score goals,” Fowler-Nembhard said in a TV interview post-play.
Though the Fever ended the hopes of reaching the playoffs for the Mavs, they will spend almost 24 hours sweating on a top-two finish for the season after they finished the regular season with an 11-3 record.
They needed to beat the Mavs by 24 goals to overtake the Melbourne Vixens on percentage, finish no lower than second, and secure a double chance to reach the Grand Final, but they finished five short.
The Fever must now hope the defending champions, the Adelaide Thunderbirds, lose their final regular-season match against Sunshine Coast on Sunday at home.
If not, the T-birds will secure the top spot with a win, the Vixens will finish second, the Fever will drop to third, and the Sunshine Coast Lightning will hold on to the final playoff spot in fourth.
Fowler-Nembhard scored all but one of her team’s 33 first-half goals, making 32 successive shots before she only missed 16 seconds into the second half.
A 22-13 advantage in the third quarter gave the Fever a 13-goal lead after three quarters and an outside chance of getting the victory margin required to go above the Vixens – but they came up short.
Fever claimed all ten rebounds in the match, with Fowler-Nembhard grabbing four and three defenders – including compatriot and defender Kadie-Ann Dehaney – combining to collect the other six.
In the other match, the Vixens are eyeing a potential double chance in the playoffs to reach the Grand Final after a 62-52 win against the Queensland Firebirds at Nissan Arena in Brisbane.
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