West Coast Fever held on in the final seconds of the game to draw with League leaders Melbourne Vixens 63 all, at Nissan Arena today.
Fever Head Coach Stacey Marinkovich was really proud of her team.
"I'm pretty happy with it (the draw), I think the things we take away from it are going to be really great learning's in the coming weeks. It was an incredibly highly skilled game, the conversion rates across both teams were really high, that's what Vixens bring, so if you can get ball off them, that says something about what our defence is doing," Marinkovich said.
It was a battle at both ends of the court early in the game. Fever had a new attacking line-up following Ingrid Colyer’s season ending knee injury, which saw training partner Emma Cosh start in wing attack for the first time this season. She did a superb job; and it did not take long before Fever got into their groove. Cosh (28 feeds, 18 goal assists, 1 deflection) picked up where Colyer left on in terms of feeding the ball to Fowler with long, high lobs landing perfectly into the goal shooter’s hands.
“Emma Cosh came out and played really well, she gave me some really good balls, so I’m really proud of how she stepped into that position,” Fowler said.
Cosh said it was different playing in wing attack to goal attack, but relished the challenge.
"It's was just about shortening up my game a little bit, still taking on the drive. I think being a goal attack I'm used to that feed so it was still bringing that sort of game, but just making sure I had a little bit more control on the feed," Cosh said.
Fowler was tagged by Kadie-Ann Dehaney, also her Jamaican teammate, after Emily Mannix was side-lined with calf soreness. When it looked like Fowler couldn’t get any better, she not only dominated the goal circle, but she led forward to create more opportunities for her team. Fowler made the long passing shots look easy as she gracefully scooped the passes with one arm. Vixens tried to change things up by putting Jo Weston on the Jamaican, but it did not slow Fowler, finishing with 59 goals and five rebounds.
The midcourt defensive pressure from Verity Charles (13 goal assists, 27 feeds and two deflections) and Jess Anstiss (two deflections) minimised the impact Kate Moloney and Liz Watson had on the first half of the game.
Fowler said the last couple of wins has seen the team go into games with more confidence.
“We’ve been performing really well, and we’ve stepped up our game. We’ve been putting on our brand out there and working together as a team.” Fowler said.
"I think we are all feeling confident and we were pretty proud of ourselves to come out with that. We know we've got those little things to work on for the second half of the game, but certainly know we can get there," Cosh said.
It was neck and neck in the first quarter until Fever scored the last two goals to take a 16-14 lead.
Following the break Fever came out firing, scoring four unanswered goals before Vixens coach Simone McKinnis called a time-out in a bid to quell Fever’s run score, it didn’t as Fever extended their lead to 11 goals. Alice Teague-Neeld slotted a Super Shot, but so too did Caitlin Thwaites and Mwai Kumwenda with seconds to go to close the quarter as Fever led 36-29.
Fever extended their lead to a game high 14 goals, but the Rebel Power 5 saw that margin quickly close as Vixens shot four Super Shots, Fever still held onto a 51-45 lead heading into the last quarter.
Fever’s last quarter did not go to plan as Vixens edged back and took a lead for the first time since the beginning of the game. Fever did not give up and rallied until the final whistle with Fowler scoring her 59th goal and drawing the game.
"They changed things up and we adapted and shifted to three styles of defence, it's probably the fourth when they locked Jae down and we just probably needed to make some better decisions and work out how we were going to get the ball speed back," Marinkovich said.
Vixens shared their attack on the scoreboard between Mwai Kumwenda (33 goals, including five super shots) and Caitlin Thwaites (26 goals including four super shots).
