West Coast Fever extended their unbeaten record to a clean sweep of all seven teams with a hard-fought 79-69 win over Firebirds at Nissan Arena in Round 7 of the Suncorp Super Netball season.
Captain Courtney Bruce was the barometer after landing awkwardly on her ankle contesting a shot in the opening term before recovering superbly to apply her trademark defensive pressure with 12 gains and five intercepts.
Fowler continued her consistency in the circle with 62 goals from 64 attempts, while Verity Charles recorded 25 goal assists, Alice Teague-Neeld 21 and Jess Anstiss 18.
Both sides showed some early nerves with turnovers and held balls in the face of intense defensive pressure at both ends of the court, before Firebirds got out to an early three-goal lead.
Fever settled and Charles provided a spark at Wing Attack, feeding Fowler and Glasgow, who nailed all three of her super-shot attempts to help put Fever ahead 19-17 at quarter-time.
Firebirds regrouped and came out hard in the second quarter, forcing Fever turnovers to reclaim the lead and then push ahead by four goals.
Teague-Neeld entered the game for Glasgow, hitting her first super-shot attempt as Fever continued to fight and claw their way back in front to lead 37-33 at the main break.
The teams traded goals to start the third term, with Fever maintaining their advantage and Anstiss showing her grit at Centre with some outstanding defensive efforts and precise passing.
Bruce, Aryang and Francis-Bayman also maintained the pressure in defence, while Teague-Neeld made another super-shot to extend the lead to seven mid-way through the quarter.
Consecutive super-shots for Firebirds from Tippah Dwan, who stepped in at Goal Attack for Gretel Bueta, kept Firebirds in the hunt heading into the last break by reducing Fever’s advantage to five goals, 58-53.
Fever cam out firing in the fourth quarter with Aryang and Bruce both making early intercepts and Anstiss and Charles controlling the mid-court to extend the margin to eight goals before a time-out to Firebirds.
Bueta returned to the court for the home side and had an immediate impact but Fever dug deep and withstood a lift in the physical intensity of the game to lead by eight with the final five minutes to play.
They extended their lead in the final minutes to run out 10-goal winners in an excellent win on the road.
