West Coast Fever will play in their second grand final in three years after putting on a masterclass performance with a 73-59 win over Sunshine Coast Lightning at USC Stadium on Sunday.
West Coast Fever’s defensive line set up an early lead. Their pressure on the ball forced some early errors for Sunshine Coast. Wing defender Jess Anstiss’ early deflection saw Fever take an early lead and score six unanswered goals.
Captain Courtney Bruce (five deflections, three intercepts, four rebounds, nine gains) and Stacey Francis (six deflections, two intercepts, five gains) put on one of their best performances this season as they shut down Lightning’s early attempts of scoring during the Rebel Power 5.
Goal defender Francis silenced the parochial Sunshine Coast fans with an intercept which set up Alice Teague-Neeld for a goal. From there Fever ran away with the quarter as Teague-Neeld slotted her first two-point shot for the game, taking a 21-12 lead into the first break.
Fever continued to hit their targets in the second as goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler worked overtime, creating space, despite being double-teamed by Phumza Maweni and Karla Pretorious. Alice Teague-Neeld helped extend Fever’s lead to 16 goals at half time with two more super-shots.
Fowler finished the match with 60 goals at 98%.
It was one of the most complete team performances Fever have played this season, as each player stood up to the challenge and overcame their opponents when it mattered.
“We’ve got huge confidence both individually and as a team and we’ve all been backing each other week in, week out,” said Teague-Neeld.
Fever’s engine room continued to grind away, with wing attack and player of the match Emma Cosh leading the feed count at 44 and Verity Charles winning match honours over her opponent Laura Langman.
Despite an 18-goal lead heading into the last quarter, Fever didn’t take their foot off the pedal as they continued to steam roll their opponents all around the court. Lightning threw everything at Fever but the Perth side were too far ahead and too set in their ways to let anything stop this win.
With less than four minutes left of the game Marinkovich made one final change with Courtney Kruta making her debut as she replaced Charles in the centre.
