West Coast Fever lost in a nail-biting grand final to Melbourne Vixens 64-66 on Sunday at Nissan Arena.
Fever Captain Courtney Bruce’s fourth quarter efforts saw Fever’s resurgence as she fought hard for the ball, finishing with five deflections, two intercepts and one rebound.
Goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler finished the game with 55 goals from 56 attempts and two rebounds. Alice Teage-Neeld provided much needed support to Fowler with 33 feeds, one deflection, four goals and two-super shots.
Fever’s first quarter effort saw them take an early three goal lead with the Perth side capitalising on some wayward Vixen passes. However, just before the quarter break a Caitlin Thwaites super shot put Vixens within one goal 16-15.
The cat and mouse game continued in the second term, Vixens broke through first with a few intercepts from Fever’s miscalculated passes. But true to Fever form they continued to grind away, trailing by four goals Alice Teague-Neeld slotted a super shot which kicked Fever into gear. They then scored the last five goals for the term with Sunday Aryang rebounding and sending the ball forward quickly for Jhaniele Fowler to score a super shot on the siren and take a 33-32 lead into half time.
Fever lost their third quarter after the Vixens outscored them by four goals, but Fever put up a great fight. Head Coach Stacey Marinkovich implemented a change through the midcourt with Stacey Francis returning to the court in wing defence, Verity Charles being moved to wing attack and Jess Anstiss taking the centre bib.
Fowler continued to be double tagged by Emily Mannix and Jo Weston which saw Fever miss a couple of direct passes to their goal shooter resulting in turnovers and goals up the other end for Vixens.
The last quarter came down to the wire, despite Fever fighting hard all quarter and winning the quarter they lost the match by two goals. Teague-Neeld attempted a super shot to even the scores, but it was Vixens’ Mwai Kumwenda who sealed the win with goal with 10 seconds remaining.
